Increased Environmental Scrutiny
The Philadelphia Inquirer is reporting that citations by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) have doubled with respect to drillers in the Marcellus Shale. "Five companies were responsible for half the violations, and nearly three-quarters of them occurred in five north-central Pennsylvania counties where shale-gas drilling is most intensely concentrated ***. DEP Secretary John Hanger, who provided the numbers to the Senate committee, said *** that the growing volume of violations did not indicate a deterioration in safe practices, but rather reflected a dramatic increase in Marcellus drilling activity, along with an increase in regulatory oversight."
We're likely to see this across the producing states.
