Speakers, activists protest shale drilling at Oakland meeting
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Jeany Carr, left, of Fayette County is comforted by Dana Dolney of Polish Hill on Thursday during a Marcellus Shale Town Hall meeting held by the State Senate Democratic Policy Committee in Oakland. Carr lives within 300 feet of a gas well and 350 of a compressor station. -
Dave Spigelmyer of Chesapeake Energy listens Thursday as State Senator Jim Ferlo questions him at a Marcellus Shale Town Hall meeting held by the State Senate Democratic Policy Committee in Oakland. -
The Rev. David Thornton of Grace Memorial Presbyterian Church in the Hill gets fired up at a Marcellus Shale Town Hall meeting.
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As a rule, state Senate and House hearings in Pennsylvania don't include time for public comments.
That was the case last week, when the House Republican Policy Committee held an orderly discussion of Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling issues in Murrysville with five representatives from regulators, industry and a citizens group.
That wasn't the case Thursday, when the Senate Democratic Policy Committee held a Marcellus Shale hearing at the Holiday Inn in Oakland with a variety of featured speakers - and added a public comments section at the end that led to a raucous, emotional hearing with boos, clapping and laughs, and even a rally.
Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Highland Park, who co-hosted the meeting, said it was unusual, but he wanted to make sure the public got a chance to voice its opinion on this issue in particular.
"There's a big divide here. People have their head in the sand on drilling," he said after the hearing. "And there's been almost nowhere for legislators to hear from people about it."
At least one speaker, Dana Dolney, a Polish Hill resident and member of the group Marcellus Protest, took note, telling the committee: "I'd greatly appreciate if you'd do more of these. The public isn't getting a chance to speak."
What resulted was a public venting of angst with the natural gas industry.
In all, 29 members of the public spoke, all of them either opposed to drilling or supportive of stronger regulation or a severance tax against drillers.
The speakers, many of them from Pittsburgh, but some from as far away as Fayette County, took issue with everything from Gov. Tom Corbett's support for drilling, to lax enforcement, to the problems they face in their own homes.
As her 4-year-old daughter stood at her side, Michelle Boyle, a nurse from Highland Park, reminisced about the world she grew up in compared to her children and the damage being wrought by natural gas drilling.
"These corporations are having a party in our house for their own benefit and they're trashing our state," she told the committee.
At one point midway through the three-hour hearing, about 60 supporters of the Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact Network marched to the meeting from a block away, began beating on a hearing room door, and chanting to the beat of a single drum, "Stop the cuts! Tax the gas!"
Mr. Ferlo asked that the protesters be let in, and they marched into the room, where more than 100 people were already in attendance.
First Published April 29, 2011 12:00 am
