As you may recall, Senator Facemire held a picnic in Braxton County Sunday and Gov. Tomblin attended. About ten of us staged a small protest with picket signs, etc., calling for clean air & water, asking the Select Committee to meet, urging Facemire to do his job, etc. Four were from Morgantown, several from the Clarksburg area (Includes Facemire's district, Yeah Denise!!!), a couple from other areas, so a broad representation. (At least 6 of the ten had attended our Marcellus Training Academy in June).
No press were in attendance, but it looked like about 100 locals. Our group was not allowed beyond the parking lot, but it still gave us access to a site that everyone had to pass. About half way through the event, Natalie Tennant walked down to talk with us. She indicated she would likely be signing the Emergency rules today, although she stated that they should have been stronger and she was looking to see if there was something she could do (although I think it is unlikely that the Secretary of State can do much other than approve or reject Emergency rules.)
We also talked briefly to (or at least talked at) Senator Minard, and a couple other local politicians.
As the event broke up, Senator Facemire came down to talk. (Some of us think he was just running interference and creating a distraction to allow Tomblin to escape). He ended up talking for two hours. He certainly wanted us to go away thinking he is our friend, but he really did not promise anything, and never really got out of "campaign" mode. He always had an answer for our points, or else he changed the subject, and he did so repeatedly. He raised a couple of issues worth discussing.
1) The Oil & Gas Inspectors Examining Board was discussed repeatedly. He said the main thing DEP wanted was to be able to move inspectors from mining or water or waste to gas, and vice versa, and Facemire wanted to keep dedicated gas inspectors. I do not think it is a problem to move an inspector from a little used position to one where there is rapid growth. Otherwise, once hired, the inspector will never do anything else, and if the industry slows down, they are sitting around not doing anything. While there should be training requirements, it should not require five years of industry experience to become a gas inspector.
2) Set-backs form houses, etc. Facemire said he did not object to 500 feet, but that the property owner should have the option of allowing it closer in cases where it might lessen the impact. While this seems reasonable, it gives the gas industry a powerful incentive to bully landowners into allowing drilling within the buffer zone. Thus, that provision has the potential to gut the set-back requirement by making it "optional".
3) public notice and comment. Facemire said he had no objection to public notice, but did not think a hearing was needed. I do not think he understood the issue as he said he did not want a comment and hearing process, and preferred to keep permitting the same as for the coal industry. I should have said something like, "If that's your position, we have a deal, because that is all we want too."
4) Facemire repeatedly made the point that the real boost in jobs comes from a cracker plant, and WV has to be producing enough gas to justify that.
5) I asked if there were specific issues in the amendments that the gas industry objected too, and Facemire never really answered that. I said that the gas industry repeatedly said at the Clarksburg hearing that they supported responsible regulations, so what exactly was the objection. Facemire changed the subject.
Facemire also repeated the mantra that there has never been a case of fracking chemicals contaminating ground water. He cited the Duke study which identified methane in ground water wells, but did not find fracking chemicals.
Conclusions. We agreed to disagree. Facemire stated that he did not think the Committee would meet before interims and that a lot of detailed information needed to be considered, and he would rather have a good bill than a quick one. I stated that I agreed, but that we should stop issuing permits that we know are defective, so if the Legislature established a moratorium, the Select Committee could take all the time they needed to write a good bill. He replied that the staff attorneys had told them that a moratorium would be unconstitutional, and would be thrown out as quickly as the Morgantown ban.
Finally, while no minds were changed, Facemire definitely knows we exist, and we will come to his home turf to hold him accountable. I don't think that has happened before.
Jim Kotcon