Partnership of environmentalists, drilling industry derided as ‘publicity stunt’

Partnership of environmentalists, drilling industry derided as ‘publicity stunt’

By LEE MURRAY

TheNewsOutlet.org

YOUNGSTOWN

The proposed gas drilling certification process created by a partnership of the fracking industry and regional environmental groups is getting harsh criticism from grass-roots activists throughout Pennsylvania and Ohio.

The newly formed Center for Sustainable Shale Development, based in Pittsburgh, announced March 20 that it will create a testing and certification program to codify industry “best practices” and hold fracking companies to a high standard, protecting communities against environmental damage.

Anti-fracking groups, however, are suspicious of the new collaboration and many question the CSSD’s legitimacy.

“This is a publicity stunt,” said Gloria Forouzan of Lawrenceville, Pa. She has spent two years fighting the fracking industry in her hometown and throughout Pennsylvania through Marcellus Shale Protest, a collective of like-minded residents who want to see the process banned. The group doesn’t have a spokesperson or leader.

“It’s a way for the drilling companies to make themselves a little bit more appealing to the general public,” Forouzan said. “Their PR has not worked until now, so they’re trying a different approach.”

The CSSD is a voluntary collaboration between some very unlikely bedfellows: The fracking industry, philanthropists and environmental groups. Industry giants, Shell and Chevron, have teamed up with Heinz Endowments, which led the collaboration, and several smaller environmental organizations to certify standards in drilling in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.

Drilling companies would apply for certification, pay $30,000 and, if they pass muster, receive certification for current and future drilling. The CSSD reported an operating budget of $800,000. Funds will come partly from industry and partly from philanthropy. Companies will be able to apply for certification later in 2013.

“These guys are going to want to look like they have some kind of endorsement, some kind of self-regulation, some kind of best-practices,” said Jean Engle of Frack Free Mahoning Valley, an anti-fracking group based in Youngstown. “But the people who are actually concerned about the effects are just not buying it.”

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.