Range Assures PA Lawyers They Only Injure People Who Can't Do Anything About It!

Two environmental organizations will ask the state’s Office of Environmental Justice to review Range Resources’ past and future shale gas development practices to determine if the company has avoided drilling in wealthier neighborhoods and targeted poorer areas of the state.

The Center for Coalfield Justice and the Pennsylvania Chapter of the Sierra Club raised that question after they said Terry Bossert, Range’s vice president for legislative and regulatory affairs, told a Pennsylvania Bar Institute gathering in Harrisburg earlier this month, that the company tries to avoid siting its shale gas wells near “big houses” where residents might have the financial resources to challenge the industrial-type developments.

“We heard Range Resources say it sites its shale gas wells away from large homes where wealthy people live and who might have the money to fight such drilling and fracking operations,” said Patrick Grenter, an attorney and Center for Coalfield Justice executive director, who attended the lawyers’ forum. A handful of attorneys in the audience confirmed that account

Joanne Kilgour, an attorney and director of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the Sierra Club, who attended the meeting, said Mr. Bossert’s statements “pose significant environmental justice issues, and raise the question whether the companies coming into communities are really operating in the best interests of those communities.”

Mr. Grenter said the environmental groups will send their letter today requesting that the state Department of Environmental Protection’s Office of Environmental Justice review Range’s well- siting permits to determine if drilling operations have been disproportionately located away from wealthier homes and neighborhoods.

According to the letter, a copy of which was provided by Mr. Grenter, “Mr. Bossert’s comments serve as actual notice of the need to implement policies and practices that protect these communities from the adverse effects of industrial land uses.”

Mr. Bossert, who was DEP chief counsel from 1995 to 1999, did not respond to several interview requests last week. He made the remark on April 7, during his PowerPoint presentation at the PBI Environmental Law Forum, in a session titled “Environmental Issues Facing the Oil and Gas Industry.” The comment was not part of the talking points on the PowerPoint slides.

Matt Pitzarella, a Range spokesman, characterized Mr. Bossert’s siting comment as “sarcastic” and “facetious,” and said it was meant to underscore “how hard we work to site our locations in the best possible place for residents and the community.”

Mr. Pitzarella, who did not attend the forum, also said via email that topography, geology, setback regulations and lease requirements are factors in the company’s well-siting decisions, and “within those factors we always select sites that are the most ideal for property owners and residents.”

But Mr. Grenter, who questioned Mr. Bossert at the forum about his comments, said it didn’t appear that the statement was made in jest. Several of those in attendance confirmed that, and said Mr. Bossert prefaced the remark with, “To be perfectly frank ...”

“I was astounded at the environmental injustice that statement conveyed,” Mr. Grenter said. “There were industry attorneys sitting behind me who gasped.”

“My personal take on it, and I don’t think there’s another way to interpret it, is that people with fewer resources to challenge the industry are the ones being targeted for well development,” said Logan Welde, staff attorney for the Clean Air Council, who heard Mr. Bossert speak. “I don’t really think it’s a secret that the industry is doing this, but to be so bold to publicly state that is just so brazen and just shows how confident the industry is in the state.”

Although Pennsylvania has had an environmental justice office since 2002, its oversight duties have regularly suffered from understaffing. And prior to October 2015, shale gas well-drilling permits were not one of the state permits that triggered an environmental justice review.

“[The EJ office] wasn’t functioning before. We looked at it as an opportunity to do the work in a different way,” DEP Secretary John Quigley said in a phone interview last week.

He said he’s in the process of “reconstituting” the EJ office, that all new oil and gas permits now automatically trigger environmental justice reviews, and that environmental justice considerations will guide all of his department’s actions and decision-making.

The office has identified more than 850 environmental justice communities statewide, a designation that applies if at least 20 percent of the population is living below the poverty line or 30 percent are non-white. As of this month, 514 of the 9,713 shale gas wells drilled in the state since Jan. 1, 2000 were drilled in designated “EJ” communities, according to Fractracker Alliance, an independent nonprofit headquartered in Camp Hill, Pa., that maps and collects data on oil and gas industry operations.

Carl Jones Jr., a Philadelphia attorney appointed by Mr. Quigley in October to head the EJ office, said he’s in the process of developing a better, more nuanced way to enforce environmental justice policy by taking a closer look — “an eyeball test” — at all development activities, not only oil and gas drilling.

“The notion behind a holistic environmental justice policy,” he said, “is to prevent individual groups from bearing a disproportionate share of environmental impacts.”

Mr. Quigley said he hopes to have a draft of new environmental justice review procedures available for public comment by late summer or early fall.

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Bullcrap.....more lies from people who twist other people's words.....Bossert NEVER uttered those words....liars are from their father the devil

You are correct Danny, the media just keeps spinning their anti-fossil fuel narrative. It is repulsive.

The Pittsburgh Post Gazette is anti-oil & gas?

The Range spokesman acknowledged he made the remarks.

The following text is clear to me:

Matt Pitzarella, a Range spokesman, characterized Mr. Bossert’s siting comment as “sarcastic” and “facetious,” and said it was meant to underscore “how hard we work to site our locations in the best possible place for residents and the community.”

Mr. Pitzarella, who did not attend the forum, also said via email that topography, geology, setback regulations and lease requirements are factors in the company’s well-siting decisions, and “within those factors we always select sites that are the most ideal for property owners and residents.”

But Mr. Grenter, who questioned Mr. Bossert at the forum about his comments, said it didn’t appear that the statement was made in jest. Several of those in attendance confirmed that, and said Mr. Bossert prefaced the remark with, “To be perfectly frank ...”

Who gives a s#*t?....550 millionaires in Carroll County Ohio alone and all you creeps want to do is hurt these companies....not everyone gets a winning lottery ticket....that's the way it goes....deal with it crybabys

Paul

Do you really think range worries about the surface, the money lies in the subsurface. Totally implausible that they redline based upon the neighborhood. Furthermore they can simply drill horizontally for over a mile, so why do they really care about where. They will put a drill in the ground wherever it makes economic sense. Net $$ is all they should or do care about.

EXACTLY

I pray to God they stick one in my back yard.....today, tomorrow....any time...what a beautiful site....beats the hell out of looking at some smelly saudi wrapped in a bed sheet putting the screws to US citizens....get a clue pal

Of course I'm impressed with the elegance, overwhelming evidence and highly analytical nature of your post.

Facts are facts....keep it simple stupid

That picture reveals homes that dont look too poor to me.

I don't know boys, the well looks too close to me.

Note that I took no position and simply posted information from the public record which I found troubling.

In defense of Range, I understand that there is a beginning and an end to drilling and may not be as bad as it looks.

I like to consider all available information.

I hope the neighbors own the minerals.

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