Posted on 02/09/2014 4:53:37 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Rodger Kendall says he never wanted to enter politics, but when he did, he waded into one of the biggest political conflicts in Pennsylvania.
Kendall became a supervisor in Robinson, Washington County, in January, less than three weeks since it won a landmark state Supreme Court ruling overturning part of new laws aimed at eliminating local obstacles to shale drilling.
Despite the win, he used his first night in office, Jan. 6, to lead a vote to remove Robinson from the case. Then he made his first official call as a township supervisor to Range Resources Corp.
In one election, voters dumped two of the township's three supervisors and shifted the township's position on drilling.
“The new administration is a gas-friendly administration,” said Kendall, 48, who has his own gas lease with Range Resources. “We have no intention of holding up or hindering the industry.”
Robinson wants out of the fight it started, Robinson et al v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania et al, over Act 13 oil and gas reforms. Lawyers for the township have to get the court's permission to be dropped from the case in which it is the lead plaintiff.
The state moved to establish uniform rules for gas drilling, among other things, with Act 13. But Robinson and others mounted a successful challenge to preserve municipal control over gas drilling through local zoning regulations.
Ultimately, Robinson's decision to drop out of the case is a formality. Several other plaintiffs will keep the case moving through appeals courts.
Robinson's revised stance shows how far the influence of the shale gas boom can reach — down to a three-person township government. The community of about 2,000 people in rural hills just west of Allegheny County has been caught up in debates over fairness, money and power.
About-face on drilling
Strong public support for gas drilling is as prominent in Robinson as anywhere in Pennsylvania, said Kendall, a Democrat. He believes voters who support drilling elected him and ally Stephen L. Duran, a Republican.
But Kendall's political opponents say outside influence is reaching in, too.
“I never experienced anything like this,” said Irene Barrie, 61, who opposed drilling and supported ousted supervisor Brian Coppola. “People just see money, and they don't care about anything else.”
Coppola, a Republican, said he didn't oppose drilling but wanted to ensure the companies follow rules and pay for any disruptions. The board approved several wells, then got involved in legal fights with drillers who claimed permits weren't being approved fast enough. Drilling triggered heated debate in township meetings with overflowing crowds of residents.
“There was clearly special interest involved,” Coppola said, declining to explain. “It's so transparent.”
Kendall and others deny having coordinated with gas companies or outside groups to turn residents against supervisors who were viewed as throwing up obstacles to drilling.
Robinson — a township 10 miles long and 3 miles wide, bisected by Route 22 — is surrounded by farmland. The boroughs of Midway and McDonald lie along its southern border. Census figures show the median household income is $47,361, about $5,000 below the statewide average.
Those families live atop some of the most valuable gas deposits in the Appalachian Basin, according to estimates from Texas-based Range Resources. The company has 23 active wells there, state records show.
Range estimates that under Robinson, the Marcellus, Upper Devonian and Utica shale formations combined hold more than 300 billion cubic feet of natural gas per square mile. At today's wholesale prices, that's about $1.5 billion worth of gas per square mile of the township.
‘Very liberating'
Chevron, Atlas Energy and Chesapeake have active wells in Robinson, state records show, and residents say the growing Cecil company Rice Energy Inc. has expressed interest in leasing land.
“You have a lot of farmers in this town who for years have scraped by. They're living milk check to milk check,” said Duran, 29, a former combat medic who defeated Coppola in the primary. “For the first time, there were farmers in this area who could actually get ahead. ... It's very liberating.”
Yet opportunity magnified longstanding land-use disputes causing conflict in township government, the current and former supervisors said. Kendall, for example, wrangled for years with township officials about subdividing his property, among other issues, he said.
Gas leases led to debate over the role and effectiveness of township government. Kendall said his family leased more than 100 acres for gas drilling, with a bonus payment of $2,000 to $3,000 an acre. But he said drilling on his property was held up because it increasingly became more difficult and time-consuming to get permits from the township.
Range sued in county and state courts, alleging Robinson supervisors improperly delayed its permits, cases that are pending. Kendall filed complaints with state regulators, challenging township rules for drilling, and that added to legal fights challenging Act 13.
With an annual operating budget of $500,000, Robinson found itself fighting on two fronts against the commonwealth, with a budget of $29 billion, and a company with a stock market value of $13.5 billion.
“It's definitely the front lines,” said John M. Smith, former township solicitor. “It has become more divisive because the money is real and the money is now. And the impact is real and the impact is now.”
Voters change priorities
The new supervisors say voters realigned leaders to match priorities they share with many other Pennsylvanians.
A Franklin & Marshall College poll released last week found 64 percent of Pennsylvanians favor the gas-drilling industry; 27 percent who oppose it. When asked whether drilling “has improved or reduced the quality of life” in communities, 38 percent said their lives improved, 26 percent said drilling reduced the quality of life, and the rest didn't know.
More drilling means a better future, Kendall said — something that's important to his constituents.
“We're not going to shut 'em out,” said Duran, whose parents leased with Range. “We're going to get things going, to get these opportunities moving.”
At a gas field in cetral Arkansas. Gas drilling was stopped for decades because of an incident back in the 1920s.
A gas company was drilling on a farm and hit gas. The well suddenly ignited and there was a column of FIRE coming out of the ground!
All those backwoods hillbillies just knew the gas company had drilled into HELL and the Devil was coming out to get them!
When the well was finally plugged, the company could not get a lease to drill anywhere in the area till the 1990s.
Arkansas is the anus of the United States, excreting the second worst president yet to occupy our White House.
***Arkansas is the anus of the United States, excreting the second worst president yet to occupy our White House.***
Close to the truth fifty years ago. Now Walmart money has attracted the best and brightest from across the USA so the NW Corner of the state is not bad. The rest...?
As for the second worst president, I had a chance to rectify that back in 1969 but didn’t. I was to meet a girl at the U of A in Fayetteville at her dorm. I sat and sat.
On Dickson Street, there was an anti-war demonstration in which a naked guy climbed a tree. That naked fool was a young Bill Clinton (A man I worked with years later interviewed him for a news story).
If I had foresight, I would walked down there, grabbed a red Arkansaw rock and knocked him out of that tree and saved the future USA from him.
The girl I waited on never showed.
| Free Republic 1st Quarter Fundraising Target: $85,000 | Receipts & Pledges to-date: $38,752 | |||
|
||||
| Woo hoo!! And the first 45% is in!! Thank you all very much!! | ||||
For those who want to see a 6 minute video showing how horizontal drilling and fracking is done, Northern Gas and Oil has done a great one.
It includes a visual piece on how fresh water aquifers are protected from contamination.
http://www.northernoil.com/drilling-video
Knowledge is power, keep the link and pass it on.
There is a lot of lead in Arkansas. I wonder if they filter their water. It’s a beautiful state, though.
We're talking about fracking and the gas industry and we're reaping some rewards.
Check with me in a year or so to see if I made a bad decision ... they paid me 13, 3something at the signing a year and a half ago and I just posted my check
Looks to be about 13 or 14 hunnert a month.
Boy ... was I stupid ... what was I THINKING !!!?
very good video ... I’m retired sand can driver.
Obama’s crowd wants to cripple people with their “liberating” Obamacare-gives-you-freedom-to-quit-your-job poison.
Hear, hear! Note, however, that that is a distinctly American attitude.In American Beliefs: What Keeps a Big Country and a Diverse People United, John Harmon McElroy notes that there were four main colonial powers in America, and each of them found different things and wanted to do different things:The conclusion is that Americans respect any honest work. If you reflect on English costume drama, you will realize that we didn't get that attitude from England - where the emphasis was on who you were rather than what you did - but in the American melieu where people who were respected because they were useful, and were respected for the caluses on their hands.
- Spain found bronze-age civilization, and conquered them in a conventional manner as they would have liked to have done in Europe, especially England. Since they found a going concern their only interest was in dominating and exploiting it, rather than creating it. So the only people they sent to their colonies were soldiers and gentlemen to be in charge. No Spanish peons need apply.
- France found in Canada not a going bronze-age civilization but a stone age one. But like Spain, France's primary motivation was control - of navigation of the St. Lawrence River - and trade with the natives. So there was need of traders, but mostly of gentlemen and soldiers to control. Very few peons, even French ones and certainly none other, were needed.
- Portugal found stone age peoples in Brazil. In order to exploit Brazil they sent over workers - in the form of African slaves. Plus of course, gentlemen to control the operation.
- England (it wasn't Great Britain until later) found in the portion of North America which it was able to claim nothing but stone-age people and forests. The land was rich and had tremendous agricultural potential but wasn't farmland until it had been laboriously cleared of trees and vines. The English colonists found that gentlemen were pretty useless; what the situation cried out for was farmers. So England sent over poor people - some, including some of my ancestors, came from Lutheran Germany - and so the American polity was dominated by practical people (even if they often had religious motivations for wanting to come, still they learned that the situation required diligent work).
I had spent a lot of time in the past 2 years working between Monahans and Lovington. Railroad work. Grueling... but my God Hobbs is booming like nothing I have seen in my whole life... The Domino’s in Hobbs was advertising for delivery drivers at $16/hr. The McDonald’s in Monahans was about the same... to start.
there’s not much that’s dumber than W. PA.
I am laughing. Hard. Do I need really need to say it?
I’m not so sure you know jack shit. I have a gas well on my farm.
I’ll assume you are referring to the multiple posts; I assure you that I clicked on “post” once. Since I’ve seen this happen to others in here also, I think it must be some sort of glitch with the internet connection. Go ahead and laugh if it makes you feel better.
Are they bringing the old T&NM back to life? The last time I was in Hobbs, the railroad was two streaks of rust buried in the dirt.
Recommend the Cattle Baron...
Or, judgeing from your reply ... has the local gummint interfered with payment?
Otherwise, your reply makes no sense to me ... I get 19%
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.