DEP should not be ‘cheerleader’ for energy industry
I have been alternately steaming mad and sulkily mulling since our local representatives to (state) legislature used some of our tax-funded hours to try to stop the closing of one of the most polluting power plants in the nation, the Hatfield’s Ferry Power Plant.
Then, the front page of your paper (Greene County Messenger’s June 27 issue) put me over the edge. Does anyone else see a problem with the fact that one of our big energy giants, Consol, invited our Department of Environment (DEP) leader to be a “Guest of Honor” at their event? And furthermore, the DEP actually accepted the invitation and spoke only high praises for this organization? Forgive me if I am wrong, but isn’t the role of DEP to regulate this industry and not to be their “cheerleader”?
I am suspect on two levels. Personally, I could not get a DEP representative to talk to a local nonpolitical Woodland Owner Group about best management practices for reclaiming a well pad site or a pipeline right-of-way. In my opinion, this is a more appropriate role for the DEP. But they just stopped returning my calls after they gave me the excuse that they could not agree to talk until they spoke to their director.
Secondly, the energy companies in southwestern Pennsylvania have polluted and ruined many of our waterways, which ultimately flow into the public drinking supply for SWPA, the Monongahela River.
The only way that any accountability is taken by these energy companies is when the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and/or Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) sue them to comply. Despite these flagrant violations, DEP accepted this invitation? Remember the Dunkard fish kill and the late Duke Lake at Ryerson State Park? Once lawsuits were in place, settlements occurred: a reverse osmosis plant was built to treat high Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) on Dunkard and money and mineral rights were exchanged for replacing Duke Lake.
On top of this headline news, our state representatives, Pam Snyder and Tim Solobay, are trying to have the state Legislature control our air quality. What qualifications do our legislators and/or DEP have to make these decisions about the quality of air pollution that will be allowed by these energy companies?
Personally, I don’t trust them to represent me and my family.
Snyder’s House Bill 2354 and Solobay’s (yet to be introduced) “Pennsylvania Greenhouse Gas Regulation Implementation Act” are based on no scientific facts (the effects of climate change) and are deceptively coined as being a way to curb electricity costs and protect our economic environment.
It seems to me that these bills are being presented to protect the energy company’s economic environment.
Gay Thistle,
Waynesburg