Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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State cuts oil and gas lease auction by over half

By Don Hopey, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 25, 2002

Plans to auction off oil and natural gas rights under huge areas of the state's forests and parks have been cut by more than half and environmental protections have been added, according to a state House committee briefing today in Harrisburg by the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

Among the more notable changes, the DCNR changed lease language to make it clear that there will be no road, pipeline or other drilling activity in state parks and natural areas. The new plan also increases the buffer zones along high-quality streams from 100 feet to 200 feet and along exceptional value streams to 300 feet.

The DCNR also modified its policy for granting waivers of those lease provisions and will now grant waivers only if they result in increased environmental protections.

The full House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee was told that the planned lease auction -- originally scheduled for May -- would go ahead in August, but only 218,210 acres in Tioga, Potter, Cameron and Westmoreland counties would be included in the offering.

And by reducing the acreage offered, the state will also reduce the number of individual tracts available for bidding from 141 to 75.

The DCNR had planned to auction off rights to drill into the potentially lucrative, two-to-three-mile deep, Trenton-Black River formations, under about 500,000 acres of public land. The revised plan drops forest land in Lycoming, Clinton and Huntingdon counties from the initial offering.

Widespread criticism of the size of the offering, the potential adverse environmental impacts and the lack of public involvement in the leasing decision caused the DCNR to postpone the lease auction and hold six public meetings.

The changes in the Trenton-Black River lease offering are a result of comments made at those public meetings and other comments received by the DCNR. A total of 4,871 comments were received.

DCNR Secretary John Oliver continued to defend his department's environmental review of the oil and gas lease plan to the committee yesterday and called the failure to provide the public information on the original lease plans "an oversight."

"During the past six weeks we listened to what people had to say, we've considered all comments and we've made changes," Oliver said. "With these modifications in place, I believe the department has made a good faith effort to deal with the public's concern."

But Jan Jarrett, director of outreach for Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future, one of more than a dozen environmental groups that opposed the original lease plan, said the changes have highlighted state land development policy weaknesses.

"The state continues to maintain that the environmental impact study we asked for isn't needed and their environmental assessment program is OK," Jarrett said. "But if that's true, why is it now necessary to make these changes?"

The DCNR expects there will be subsequent lease sales of oil and gas rights for Trenton-Black River, and Jarrett said legislation is needed to require a full environmental impact study and public participation before such massive development plans are formulated for public lands.