Energy Politics in Pennsylvania
The banter continues in Pennsylvania, ever since Governor Shapiro made a deal with a fossil fuel corporation that’s been riddled with violations (NOVs) issued by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) over past years and decades.
Below are excerpts from a January 12, 2024 story that appeared in The Wall Street Journal. Take note of the comment by Dr. Ketyer, President of Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania, followed by the governor’s comment about “extremists” and a rebuttal letter by the CEO.
Wall Street Journal
The Democrat, the Fracking Executive and the Deal They Struck. Can It Work?
Pennsylvania governor and CNX chief pursue industry business model; pact lets company voluntarily disclose environmental data.
By Kris Maher | WSJ | Jan. 12, 2024 | Excerpts
After he became governor, Shapiro said he spent months discussing the need for data from drilling operations with CNX Chief Executive Nick DeIuliis.
Recent studies in Pennsylvania have found that people living near gas operations are at greater risk of developing asthma and other health conditions. “The evidence is in. Fracking is bad for health and the environment,” said Ned Ketyer, a retired pediatrician and president of Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania. “I think it’s a terrible agreement.”
Three University of Pittsburgh studies released in August have spurred more health concerns about fracking. Researchers looked at health conditions and distance to wells and found increased risks for asthma, childhood lymphoma and lower birth weights closer to gas operations.
“The point is we’re going to be guided by science and data and fact, not by extremists,” he said. “We believe this is a great model moving forward here in Pennsylvania.” Gov. Shapiro
Some environmentalists argue that the science on the health effects of gas development is already settled, and that the collaboration will only lead to more drilling. Ketyer, of Physicians for Social Responsibility, said he believes Shapiro reached the agreement because it suits his political ambitions beyond Pennsylvania, a claim that Shapiro denies.
Five days later, a letter written by CNX CEO Deiuliis to Dr. Ketyer, appeared on the CNX website. Does this sound like a bizarre, threatening, unhinged, and rambling rant to you?
CNX website
Radical Transparency
CNX Engages Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania
CNX CEO Nick Deiuliis writes to local group following inflammatory comments on Radical Transparency
JANUARY 17, 2024
To: Edward C. Ketyer, M.D., F.A.A.P
Dr. Ketyer
Thank you for your contribution to the recent Wall Street Journal article that featured the historic agreement between CNX Resources and Pennsylvania Governor Shapiro. Free expression of viewpoints is a fundamental requisite for effective journalism and an essential individual right in our republican democracy.
I found your quote in the story puzzling. You said, “The evidence is in. Fracking is bad for health and the environment.”
That’s quite a bold statement. Some might even say accusatory in nature, or legally actionable. And it comes from someone holding a medical degree, carrying the inference of an expert, no less
Sadly, our industry has no shortage of critics, who often apply a shrill fanaticism of a virulent religion. Some manipulate data to support their criticism. Others voice incendiary opinions without even bothering to fabricate a basis. That’s what religions have done for centuries when it comes to scientific realities that conflict with the faith.
Yet you and I share scientific backgrounds. I want to believe your medical training would not allow you to succumb to such anti-science behavior.
Professionally, you are bound by the Hippocratic Oath. Three tenets are very much applicable in this instance.
First, as a health care provider, you committed to “abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and harm.” Announcing something to be true with an inference of conclusive evidence backing it, yet knowing there is no such evidence, would be a clear violation of this tenet.
Second, as a doctor, when not certain on a matter, you promised “I will not be ashamed to say ‘I know not.’” Professing to the uninformed that you do know what you don’t bother to know is a harsh rebuke of such a promise. And it places personal ego and vanity ahead of science and facts.
Most importantly, as a physician, you professed, “Above all, I must not play at God.” When you publicly admonish an effort that aims to transparently publish real-time data so citizens know exactly what is occurring, you trample science and look to replace it with omnipotence based on ideological belief.
Ultimately, logic dictates one of us is mistaken. Because I see “evidence” that fracking is not bad for health or the environment. In fact, it is crucial to our future health and environmental well-being.
This disagreement between us is what the Radical Transparency initiative seeks to settle. All stakeholders need a common set of source data, directly from field sites, sent simultaneously to company officials and state regulators, and freely available to all willing to study it. To vilify such an effort raises questions about motive.
You appear to be passionate about the region and its wonderful people. So am I. Another thing we share in common.
I have a proposition: join our effort. Consider this a personal and perpetually open invitation to come and meet with the real people involved in this effort. Come and visit our well sites to see the environmental monitoring technology. Come and see our 24-hour monitoring center. Please bring the “settled data” you reference. We will show you how to access the data we are reporting hourly.
I’m willing to put in the work necessary to arrive at the unquestionable reality of this matter. Using data and science. Will you join me?
Sincerely,
Nick
CNX’s “real-time data” comes from:
- MOR9 – a well pad in Greene County. Now in production.
- NV110 – a well pad in Washington County, in production.
- Morris Station — a compressor station in Greene County.
Only PM2.5 is being measured around that site.
Grossly inadequate
Taking a closer look at compressor stations overall, we find that only monitoring for PM2.5 is grossly inadequate, when considering all the other air pollutants emitted by by compressor stations. Companies list all the pollutants in the permitting process with the Pa. DEP.
Example of emissions from a compressor station in neighboring Washington County, PA. This compressor station has a similar horsepower rating when compared to the CNX Midstream / Morris Dehy Station in Greene County.
Washington County residents say their neighbor is noisy, disruptive and a pollutor. Their neighbor is a compressor station, and it’s a quarter-mile away.
Excerpts from a March 9, 2020 story by DAVID TEMPLETON & DON HOPEY in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Noting that “modern oil and gas development frequently occurs in close proximity to human populations,” a study by PSE (Physicians, Scientists, and Engineers) for Healthy Energy and including Michael McCawley of West Virginia University, said oil and gas development produces noise levels that may increase the risk of such adverse health outcomes as annoyance, sleep disturbance, and cardiovascular disease.
That 2017 study, published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, called for “policies and mitigation techniques” to limit human exposure to noise from oil and gas operations.
And a May 2017 study done in Doddridge County, W.Va., and published in the journal PLOS One, a peerreviewed open access scientific journal published by the Public Library of Science, found: “Environmental exposures from these stations, including toxic chemicals and noise, are a significant public health concern and a source of stress for nearby residents.”
Meleah Boyle, a University of Maryland researcher and the lead author of that study, said in a published interview that five out of six homes they monitored — all located within a half-mile of a compressor station — “had combined outdoor average sound levels greater than 55 decibels over a 24-hour period.”
On the cancer front, a 2007 study in Norway found an increase risk for myelogenous leukemia and multiple myeloma among petroleum workers exposed to crude oil. It concluded that “the results suggest that benzene exposure, which most probably caused the increased risk of acute myelogenous leukemia, also resulted in an increased risk of multiple myeloma.”
CNX Midstream Opr Co LLC /
Morris Dehy Station
VIDEO: Compressor Stations & Health
M. McCawley, Associate Professor
School of Public Health, West Virginia University
2019 SHALE & PUBLIC HEALTH CONFERENCE – Pittsburgh
Documents for two compressor stations:
McIntosh Compressor Station (47-page PDF)
Janus Compressor Station (150-page PDF)
EarthWorks FLIR videos of air pollution
THE FLIR (Forward Looking InfraRed) GF320 Camera uses state-of-the-art, independently verified technology capable of detecting volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including known carcinogens, and greenhouse gases. The FLIR GF320 is the industry standard in identifying emissions, leaks, and events that occur during routine oil and gas operations, or because of faulty equipment, accidents, and intentional releases by operators. More
EarthWorks playlists on YouTube
Pennsylvania Community Empowerment Project
Compressors, Pipelines & Related Infrastructure
Twilight Compressor Station: 2016-2021
EQT – Sizemore Pad, Wetzel County, WV (July 2022)
Diversified Production playlist
Satellite Detection of Air Pollution:
Air Quality Impacts of Shale Gas Development in Pennsylvania (47-page PDF)
Excerpts:
- Our results suggest that the PM pollution from shale gas wells can travel through wind for up to 10 kilometers, but the pollution disperses and the impact decreases in distance.
- We find that from 2010 to 2017, there are 671 census block groups across 40 counties that have shale gas wells located in, and there are about 840,000 populations living around shale gas wells. The estimated PM emissions from shale gas wells causes additional 20.11 deaths among these communities.
- This paper not only provides understandings of how the shale gas wells affect the air quality through PM emissions, but also shows empirical evidence that shale gas wells cause extra mortality in the local communities through generating PM pollution. Since we only focus on the PM pollution from shale gas industry, we are not able to estimate the overall externalities.
- Future researches are needed for investigating the welfare impact of shale gas industry through other channels, such as other air pollutants and water contamination.
Earthworks’ Optical Gas Imaging Brings Dangers of VOCs and Methane to Light
Evaluation of gas well setback policy in the Marcellus Shale region of Pennsylvania in relation to emissions of fine particulate matter (25-page PDF)
Conclusions:
- Results from this research indicate that current PA setback policy of 152.4 m (500 ft.) is inadequate to protect residents from exceedances of the EPA’s daily concentration standard for PM2.5, and it is inadequate to protect against exceedances of the annual concentration standard for sites with 6 or more wells.
- To protect occupied buildings and outdoor areas against exceedances of the daily average standard, this analysis suggests that setback distances need to be up to 736 meters.
- To protect against exceedances of the annual average PM2.5 standard, setback distances should be a function of the number of wells drilled at the site.
- Further refinements to this analysis are needed to account for multiple pollutants.
- Alternative policy options include limits on the number of wells per site (a choice that may have negative environmental implications as it would increase the number of constructed well pads) and limiting the maximum PM2.5 emission rate at each site to 0.165 kg/hr.
The Energy Age 