[July 01, 2011] Officials question drilling ban in Morgantown Tweet Jun 23, 2011 (Charleston Daily Mail - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- CHARLESTON, W.Va.--State lawmakers are already questioning Morgantown's recent decision to ban the controversial drilling method used to get Marcellus shale natural gas. Morgantown's City Council voted 6-1 Tuesday to ban hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," in the city or within a mile of its borders. Environmentalists and others worry the chemical serum companies use in the fracking fluid can pollute water supplies, despite industry assurances it will not. Now one top lawmaker said the city's decision threatens to "strangle" development of the gas industry in West Virginia. Sen. Corey Palumbo, D-Kanawha, is one of the members of a 10-member House and Senate committee charged with crafting new environmental regulations for Marcellus drilling. He said the goal was to protect the environment but also allow for "responsible" production of gas. But he said the regulations mustn't "strangle the industry." Asked what for an example of something that would strangle companies, Palumbo said, "I think like what Morgantown did -- that's a perfect example." He is also concerned different sets of rules all across the state would discourage gas companies from coming here. "I don't think we want a hodgepodge of different rules and regulations for the industry to follow, I think we want one statewide standard that makes sense," Palumbo, who is also chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a Wednesday telephone interview. The Senate-side chairman of the Marcellus shale committee, Sen. Doug Facemire, D-Braxton, agreed. "I think it's critical that we don't have a bunch of different pockets of laws, like where the City of Morgantown passed their ordinances," Facemire said in a Wednesday telephone interview. "I just think it would be wrong for every city and every town and every county to have these rules." He said it's not fair to the industry to have different sets of rules everywhere. The House-side chairman of the Marcellus committee was more cautious. Delegate Tim Manchin, D-Marion, said he wasn't prepared to take a side on Morgantown's ban. On the one hand, he sympathized with Northeast Natural Energy, the Charleston-based company that was planning to drill near a water treatment plant before Morgantown put its ban in place. "I mean, I'm disturbed in the sense that this company has spent a whole bunch of money -- at least they claim they have spent $7 million -- and now they're shutting this down, and that concerns me," Manchin said. "I mean, I wouldn't want to be in that position." But Manchin also feels cities should have some say in the matter. "I mean obviously if we could come up with something that works for everybody and takes care of the city's concerns and works for industry -- that's ideal," Manchin said. "But I'm not prepared to bless or condemn the cities' rights to have some influence on this process." One of the House Republicans on the committee was in favor of a statewide standard rather than city-by-city regulations. "I would be inclined to think that we need to have a standard that applies throughout the state because otherwise we send, I think, a bad message out to people who are considering investing in these kind of wells -- and they are very expensive to drill," said Delegate Bill Anderson, R-Wood. "And I think that capital that might flow into the state for the development of that resource might not flow in if there is a hodgepodge of different laws in different municipalities throughout the state." The group, whose House members were just named this week, has not yet set a timeline for getting a bill together. But several members said that they were likely to focus on environmental regulations and not other issues, like forced pooling. That practice lets companies extract gas from beneath a large tract of land even if they can't agree to a lease with all of the mineral rights owners. Mineral rights owners think its puts them at a disadvantage when they bargain with companies. Disagreement over the practice helped upend work on Marcellus shale regulations during this year's regular legislative session. Delegate Woody Ireland, R-Ritchie, another one of the 10-members of the committee, said he was concerned forced pooling would become a "poison pill" in any regulatory bill it was in. Facemire also said forced pooling didn't belong in a regulatory bill. "Forced pooling is a producer-buyer problem," Facemire said. "I don't see where that has anything to do with the environment and things like that -- what we need to regulate is the permitting, the fees, the highways, those type things." Contact writer Ry Rivard at [email protected] or 304-348-1796. To see more of the Charleston Daily Mail, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dailymail.com/. Copyright (c) 2011, Charleston Daily Mail, W.Va. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]