As the 2011 Regular Session nears its halfway point, the 80th Legislature is continually dealing with many challenging and important issues.
One such complex issue deals with harvesting natural gas from West Virginia’s abundant Marcellus Shale reserves. The Marcellus Shale is a formation of sedimentary rocks that lies under a 95,000-square-mile area that includes part of southwestern New York, most of western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio and nearly all of West Virginia. Marcellus gas reserves lie between 3,000 feet and 9,000 feet under the land’s surface.
Formed in the Appalachian Basin over 300 million years ago, the Marcellus Shale formation has recently become an economically viable source of natural gas due to technological advances in horizontal drilling and the hydraulic fracturing process. Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” involves injecting a mixture of water and chemicals under high pressure to release the natural gas reserves contained in the shale.
While this industry could potentially provide significant economic benefits to the state, lawmakers are currently grappling with a myriad of issues to ensure that this is done in a balanced manner beneficial to all citizens and stakeholders.
According to a recently published study produced by West Virginia University and the Oil and Natural Gas Association, between 2002 and 2008, West Virginia led the nation in the number of gas drilling permits issued. More than 2,800 permits were issued for new drilling in 45 of the state’s 55 counties.
The industry-funded study focuses on the economic impacts of our growing efforts to extract natural gas from the Marcellus.
In 2009, the study shows, West Virginia’s natural gas industry generated more than $12 billion in business, created more than 24,000 jobs in the state and paid more than $550 million in wages.
The report also notes that it is possible that Marcellus development created between 7,600 and 8,500 additional jobs in West Virginia in 2010. According to the report, by the year 2015, West Virginia could see 19,000 more jobs because of Marcellus development and related activities.
With any new industry the positive economic outlook must be balanced with proper care for the environment and a respect for all citizens’ rights. This industrial process has created many questions for lawmakers to consider with regard to both the environment and landowner rights.
Other advocates contend that tapping into the Marcellus shale field comes at a high cost, ranging from contamination of ground water to damage to local roadways from moving heavy equipment to the drilling sites to infringement on landowners’ rights.
The Legislature is considering how to regulate it responsibly as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is examining the fracking process to determine whether it endangers supplies of drinking water.
In order to address some of these concerns through regulation the “Hydraulic Fracturing and Horizontal Drilling Act” was introduced in both the Senate (SB 258) and the House (HB 2878) in late January. This bill came out of extensive work by interim committees during the months leading up to session. The bill is now being considered in the Judiciary Committee of each body. It is a comprehensive bill that will regulate Marcellus Shale development in areas including land use and surface owner rights, water quality and quantity, disclosure of chemicals used in the hydraulic fracturing process and waste management and disposal.
Clearly this is a very complex, detailed and highly important issue. Lawmakers will be hard at work during the second half of this legislative session and beyond to come up with real solutions that strike the appropriate age-old balance between industry, environment and citizens’ rights.
