Gas industry no longer must comply with stricter air quality guidelines!
RDA - Responsible Drilling Alliance
Gas industry no longer must comply
with stricter air quality guidelines!
Deadline for policy reversal looms
TAKE ACTION TODAY
The facts: In December, 2010, a policy document was put in place by DEP, advising air quality professionals responsible for permitting of gas industry compressors and other sites to consider the aggregation (total toxic accumulation) of air emission sources, as opposed to just permitting each site based on the emissions of that single-point source of pollutants.
On February 26, 2011 – this policy was rescinded by the Corbett administration. The new policy advises air quality permitting staff to look ONLY at individual pollution-emitting sites rather than the cumulative impacts the gas industry will have on PA’s air quality.
The problem: Due to the topography of our region, we already have poor air quality. With the increasing presence of the gas industry, a change for the worse is certainly headed our way. A variety of emissions are emitted at compressor sites: NOx, CO2, VOC, Formaldehyde, PM10, Ethane, Methane, Propane, I-butane, n-butane, Non Methane Hydrocarbons, Heavy Non Methane and Non Ethane Hydrocarbons, etc.
Compressors will grow in number and size as the gas fields grow. They will emit a mix that can create ground level ozone that will regularly be held in place by the air inversion factor we see in our valleys and hollows, including the Susquehanna River Valley, where many of you live.
What might this mean to your family, especially children, the elderly and those with respiratory challenges?
The solution: DEP must be made to rescind the recent order and reinstate tighter controls. Your participation in this public comment process is critical. Please take action today. Below is a template with the address and necessary subject line information. Please add your personal comments in the blanks provided. Please forward this notice to those in your networks, post on FaceBook, Twitter, etc. The final deadline day is May 26, 2011.
TO: vtri...@state.pa.us
SUBJECT: AGGREGATION
RE: Notice to Rescind and Remove From the Official List of Department Technical Guidance Documents the Interim Guidance for Performing Single Stationary Source Determinations for The Oil and Gas Industries [DEP ID: 270-0810-006] Published at 40
Pa.B 7429
Dear Mr. Trivedi:
I am writing to urge the reinstatement of the rescinded Technical Guidance Document [DEP ID: 270-0820-006], along with any modifications that would aid the department in adequately protecting our air resources.
My reasons are …
I am concerned about air quality because....
Thank you for this opportunity to participate in the process that will affect the air quality in my community.
Sincerely,
YOUR NAME
YOUR ADDRESS (MAKE SURE YOU INCLUDE YOUR ADDRESS.)
NOTE: Mr. Trivedi prefers to receive your comments by email. However, leters can be sent to:
Virendra Trivedi, Environmental Engineer Manager
New Source Review Section
Division of Permits
Bureau of Air Quality
12th Floor
Rachel Carson State Office Building
PO Box 8468
Harrisburg PA 17105-8468
The reminder: This week, we have highlighted "AGGREGATION", the last of 3 public comment topics regarding air quality in PA. We sincerely hope you have commented on the previous 2. It’s not too late to do so. For details and instructions, visit the newsletter archives at www.ResponsibleDrillingAlliance.org
Klaber’s Dilemma
Ms Kathryn Klaber, Executive Director of the gas industry’s Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC), is prone to fantastic overstatements about the jobs and taxes the Marcellus industry produces. Recently in Harrisburg, at an industry-sponsored “Friends of Marcellus” rally, Klaber claimed that the 14,000 or so mostly out-of-state workers in the core drilling operation were responsible for creating 141,000 new jobs in Pennsylvania.
There is a legitimate way to estimate how many additional jobs should be created, the multiplier ratio of 3.55 used by Labor and Industry statisticians. Allen Walker, the new Secretary of Community and Economic Development, gave that figure when testifying before The Marcellus Shale Advisory Committee. He reported 48,000 jobs, which is 13,500 core drilling workers times 3.55.
This was a blow to Ms. Klaber, who had been claiming 88,588 jobs for 2010. Suddenly down 40,000 jobs thanks to Mr. Walker’s unfortunate use of actual government statistics, Ms. Klaber simply applied a second multiplier effect to the multiplier effect and plucked the 141,000 number out of thin air.
It has recently been tough for Ms. Klaber. The Budget and Policy Center could only find 44 million of the 389 million state and local taxes she and the MSC claimed to have paid in 2009. Ms. Klaber responded by saying they had actually generated a billion in taxes since coming to Pennsylvania. This billion included any taxes paid by anyone who received pay from any industry-related activity. Stretched over a number of years, this figure still only represents one billion in a budget in excess of one hundred and fifty billion dollars. Not a big deal, at 6/10’s of one percent.
Ms. Klaber’s job is to convince our legislators that it is worth allowing the industry to sacrifice the drilling regions in the state to reap the promised tax and economic benefits. Her job is getting harder as experience replaces the wildly overheated projections of the industry funded Penn State Report.
Some background information:
Marcellus Gas drilling jobs are reported in the Pa Department of Labor and Industry statistics within the category "Mining and Logging". As of March, 2011 there were 30,000 workers in this group including loggers, miners, traditional gas and oil drillers, and the new Marcellus shale industry. (Pennsylvania, it should be noted, has approximately 70,000 traditional vertical gas wells.)
Mining and Logging grew from March 2010 to March 2011 by 6,400 jobs and has added 10,000 new jobs in the last 4 years, likely mostly Marcellus. This entire category of 30,000 workers represents less than half of 1% of PA's 6.3 million person workforce.
Department of Labor and Industry statistics:
http://www.paworkstats.state.pa.us/admin/gsipub/htmlarea/uploads/PA_news_rel.pdf
Another way to get at the core drilling industry jobs is to estimate them from the amount of wells completed. A report published in 2009 by Pennsylvania College of Technology, “Marcellus Shale Workforce Needs Assessment” determined that each well drilled has the effect of creating 11.53 work years of labor (p.19). The Marcellus industry drilled 1457 wells in 2010 or 16,799 job equivalents. The year before, 768 wells were drilled or 8,855 job equivalent. The additional number of 7,944 based on Penn College assumptions is close to the 6,400 jobs reported in state statistics. Some of the jobs included in the Penn College study were in the construction industry, support services, and manufacturing industries and not reported in state statistics as gas jobs. These “multiplier effect jobs” would account for the difference. There are other "multiplier jobs" beyond these.
The facts are clear. It is a long way from the small core of new drilling jobs to the creation of 141,000 jobs – a claim that the Marcellus Shale Coalition’s Kathryn Klaber picked out of thin air.