PHILADELPHIA -- Pointing to natural gas as a key component of a national energy strategy that protects national security and blasting the "hysteria" he sees as accompanying environmental concerns, former Gov. Tom Ridge opened the Marcellus Shale Coalition's conference here on a fiery note.
Mr. Ridge, who spent the past year as a paid adviser to the industry trade group, used his half-hour opening remarks to repeatedly urge greater development of American energy resources.
Failing to do so would carry "grave consequences," he said, suggesting that collective policy action like what followed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks would be needed to protect the nation from the whims of foreign energy producers.
"There is no national energy policy -- it's a mirage," Mr. Ridge told the packed ballroom at the Philadelphia Convention Center.
He touted natural gas as a cleaner fuel with fewer emissions, a cheaper cost, and a domestic product. He acknowledged the opposition that has grown against natural gas drilling as it has grown rapidly in Pennsylvania, attributing the pushback to misinformation about the hydraulic fracturing process.
"The people that are working in the natural gas industry in Pennsylvania, particularly over the past couple of years, are primarily Pennsylvanians ??-- they live in the community in which they're drilling for natural gas," Mr. Ridge said.
"They drink water out of that aquifer. They go fishing and boating on the streams and the lakes. So the people in this industry in Pennsylvania are as sensitive to the quality of the water that they consume and enjoy for recreation as any environmentalist located anywhere."
The protesters expected later today will be expressing concerns targeted mostly on the issue of water quality. A rally and march are expected to start around noon, organized by several dozen anti-drilling groups, though no demonstrators could be seen near the convention center entrance when the event got underway this morning.
Range Resources Chairman and CEO John Pinkerton, following his prepared remarks, told reporters that more public education on the drilling process is needed. He pointed to the company's early steps to disclose hydraulic fracturing chemicals and share wastewater treatment techniques as beneficial to both the industry and the public's perception of it.
"We have and we will continue to sit down with [critics] and talk through their concerns," Mr. Pinkerton said. "We've got landowners that want their land drilled. They want to benefit from the assets they have in the ground, that their families have owned in some cases for hundreds of years. And they don't want to be told by somebody else that we ought to drill this well five years from now versus drilling it today."
In addition to Mr. Ridge, former Gov. Ed Rendell is scheduled to address the more than 1,600 attendees later this afternoon. Current Gov. Tom Corbett will speak during a luncheon tomorrow.
In between, various drilling company executives will talk about their work as well as new developments in wastewater treatment technology, drilling procedures and a bevy of regulatory issues.
Source: www.post-gazette.com
Mr. Ridge, who spent the past year as a paid adviser to the industry trade group, used his half-hour opening remarks to repeatedly urge greater development of American energy resources.
Failing to do so would carry "grave consequences," he said, suggesting that collective policy action like what followed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks would be needed to protect the nation from the whims of foreign energy producers.
"There is no national energy policy -- it's a mirage," Mr. Ridge told the packed ballroom at the Philadelphia Convention Center.
He touted natural gas as a cleaner fuel with fewer emissions, a cheaper cost, and a domestic product. He acknowledged the opposition that has grown against natural gas drilling as it has grown rapidly in Pennsylvania, attributing the pushback to misinformation about the hydraulic fracturing process.
"The people that are working in the natural gas industry in Pennsylvania, particularly over the past couple of years, are primarily Pennsylvanians ??-- they live in the community in which they're drilling for natural gas," Mr. Ridge said.
"They drink water out of that aquifer. They go fishing and boating on the streams and the lakes. So the people in this industry in Pennsylvania are as sensitive to the quality of the water that they consume and enjoy for recreation as any environmentalist located anywhere."
The protesters expected later today will be expressing concerns targeted mostly on the issue of water quality. A rally and march are expected to start around noon, organized by several dozen anti-drilling groups, though no demonstrators could be seen near the convention center entrance when the event got underway this morning.
Range Resources Chairman and CEO John Pinkerton, following his prepared remarks, told reporters that more public education on the drilling process is needed. He pointed to the company's early steps to disclose hydraulic fracturing chemicals and share wastewater treatment techniques as beneficial to both the industry and the public's perception of it.
"We have and we will continue to sit down with [critics] and talk through their concerns," Mr. Pinkerton said. "We've got landowners that want their land drilled. They want to benefit from the assets they have in the ground, that their families have owned in some cases for hundreds of years. And they don't want to be told by somebody else that we ought to drill this well five years from now versus drilling it today."
In addition to Mr. Ridge, former Gov. Ed Rendell is scheduled to address the more than 1,600 attendees later this afternoon. Current Gov. Tom Corbett will speak during a luncheon tomorrow.
In between, various drilling company executives will talk about their work as well as new developments in wastewater treatment technology, drilling procedures and a bevy of regulatory issues.
Source: www.post-gazette.com
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