Last month acting governor Earl Ray Tomblin issued an executive order directing the WV DEP to come up with an emergency rule for increasing regulation on horizontal drilling for natural gas.  Today that rule was filed.  Once approved by the Secretary of State, it will be effective for 15 months.  Details are on the DEP website…

Citizens’ groups held events in Charleston and Morgantown today, calling for a moratorium on new permits until comprehensive legislation is passed to protect West Virginians’ health and quality of life.   A family from Jackson county testified that they became sick after drinking and bathing in well water that became contaminated after three natural gas wells were drilled and hydraulically fractured on their property.

On August 12th, Circuit Judge Susan Tucker of Monongalia County overturned the fracking ban of the City of Morgantown, which extended one mile beyond the City limits, according to the Morgantown Dominion-Post.  “The ordinance passed by the City of Morgantown,” she concluded, “is pre-empted by state legislation and is invalid.”

Northeast Natural Energy has already started two Marcellus gas wells in the Morgantown Industrial Park on behalf of Enrout Properties LLC, which owns the well pad surface and co-owns the mineral rights. Morgantown City Manager Terrence Moore said he is reviewing and discussing the ruling with city attorney Steve Fanok, in order to develop a response to the ruling.
 
At the July scheduling hearing, Tucker ordered the parties to prepare arguments to address her question: “Can a municipality adopt an ordinance that trumps WV-DEP rules?” Tucker now has ruled on that question; State code gives the Department of Environmental Protection (WV-DEP) sole discretion regarding the exploration, development, production, storage and recovery of oil and gas, she wrote. There is no exception to that carved out in the municipal home rule statute.

“Governmental entities are required to supplement and complement the efforts of the state by coordinating their programs with those of the state,” she wrote. Where there’s a conflict, the state Supreme Court has ruled, “the municipal ordinance must yield.”  State regulations, she wrote, “do not provide any exception or latitude to permit the City of Morgantown to impose a complete ban on fracking or to regulate oil and gas development and production.” 

The legal issues in the case, she claims, do not give her authority to consider environmental issues, which acting Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin addressed in the recent executive order to the WV-DEP.  This executive order is to be put into effect this coming week, according to reliable sources.

Back in mid-February, acting governor Tomblin signed an executive order creating a Marcellus to Manufacturing Task Force, consisting primarily of gas and chemical industry executives, from Bayer Corporation, Triana Energy, Caiman Energy, Northeast Natural Energy, Chesapeake Energy, EQT and others. Its main goal was to attract and encourage employers that convert ethane, a compound removed from natural gas during the refining process, into the widely used chemical compound named ethylene. (Ethane is a major component of “wet” gas from Marcellus shale fracking operations).

A meeting of this task force had been called for today.  However, Ken Ward of the Charleston Gazette reported:  “Just heard from Kurt Dettinger, general counsel for the governor’s office, and he informed me that they’ve called off tomorrow’s task force meeting, citing the inadequate public notice.”  So, after two months of its existence, the task force is yet to meet.  

The Marcellus Gas and Manufacturing Development Act was passed by the WV Legislature and approved by Tomblin to provide numerous tax breaks  for the very same industrial plants to be promoted by the Task Force.  Yet, a framework for protecting the infrastructure of the State, its land, water, air, and roads, is not being studied and has no “task force”.   Nor does the WV Office of Oil and Gas have adequate inspectors to enforce the existing laws, according to most observers.  No ”special session” of the WV Legislature has been scheduled in spite of the many calls for such.