BIDEN SHOULD AMEND HIS VEEP PROMISE, WRITES KEITH C. BURRIS
The explosive grand jury report recently released by Attorney General Josh Shapiro documented the extensive damage created in Pennsylvania by the so-called “fracking boom.” The details are heartbreaking, and the inaction by state health and environmental agencies is outrageous.
The report offers ample evidence of fracking’s toll on our health, our air and our water, but the focus on crimes of the past should not lull us into letting the current governor off the hook. It is imperative that we ask what the Wolf administration is doing right now to protect Pennsylvanians from fossil fuel corporations, and that we work to ensure that the families harmed by fracking receive justice.
The evidence gathered by the grand jury over the past two years shows us, in painstaking detail, how fracking presents serious threats to the public health at every step of the process: air and water pollution at drilling sites, a dangerous brew of unknown chemicals, leaky pipelines and trucks full of hazardous waste traveling across the state. And the report makes abundantly clear that our state’s political leaders have made deliberate choices to give the fossil fuel industry a free hand.
That meant granting them the permits to drill thousands of wells, but also to downplay or minimize the risks to health and safety. The litany of failures of both the Department of Health and the Department of Environmental Protection stem from decisions made at the very top. As the report puts it, employees at both agencies got a clear message: Leave fracking alone.
But while the report might shine its brightest light on the crimes committed in the early days of the drilling boom, it would be a mistake to allow the Wolf administration to push this off on their predecessors. Mr. Wolf must be held accountable for the failures he has overseen.
When he took office in 2016, antifracking activists and impacted residents made their case to Mr. Wolf directly. But the governor was still invested in the false notion that fracking was just another industry that could be regulated. He has failed to protect the communities harmed by the disastrous Mariner East pipeline, the bizarre decision to nix a massive fine against Range Resources happened on his watch, and the number of wells drilled has not slowed down.
The grand jury report identifies several areas where the Wolf administration has failed to take the health effects of fracking seriously. The DoH dedicated a paltry sum to update an inadequate registry of complaints, agencies are still not working collaboratively and the DEP has utterly failed to refer fracking cases for criminal prosecution. This suggests that while things may be better in Harrisburg, better simply isn’t good enough.
Mr. Shapiro gave a moving, and frankly damning, summary of the report’s findings at his press conference. For those of us who have worked closely with affected communities and have listened to their stories for over a decade, it was a remarkable and long-awaited action by a prominent state elected official. But will it spark real change or — most importantly — deliver justice for the families whose lives and communities have been ripped apart by a lawless industry?
The grand jury report makes a suite of policy recommendations, like moving wells further away from residential neighborhoods and ending the outrageous secrecy that prevents the public from knowing what chemicals are being blasted underground. It also urges criminal prosecutions of the companies that have polluted our air and water.
Delivering real justice must come from action at the very highest level. Mr. Wolf should immediately halt all new fracking permits, and work towards a full ban on fracking across the state. The fossil fuel industry’s free rein in Pennsylvania must end. There is no way to regulate corporate polluters that have shown utter disregard for the people of Pennsylvania.