If we allow them to drill it will be the biggest mistake we ever made! Do your homework and research whats going on in the northern tier of our state. Better yet ask someone who lives there!

There should be a moratorium everywhere! Let's start putting money into renewable energy and stop destroying our water supplies!

Dead on Hoekstra. I hear Solyndra is a worthy investment!

I am tired of people making this a partisan issue. We need to agree, as living, breathing, and water drinking humans that the public health and safety impacts of gas drilling are deeply troubling.

NO FRACKING anywhere!

Join the Movement to protect our land, air and water from the ravages of industrial shale gas drilling - Saturday, July 28, 2012, Washington DC
StopTheFrackAttack.org

join the clean air council, frack action, food and water watch, catskill mountain keeper, catskill river keeper,....in support of a frack-free world

Thrilled with this decision!! Step in the right direction...so happy.

Fracking has been found to cause no harm to water supplies in Pennsylvania. As for renewables, only the very wealthiest could afford to pay for the energy they produce, unless produced by dams. And I don't wish to see more dams built.

In speaking with a resident of Bradford County, he says the only problems there consist of endless caravans of water trucks coming through town to deliver water to drilling sites. Secondly, many of the drillers have come from oil drilling states and they've been followed by enterprising women who have now set up shop in some of the towns.

Once the wells are completed, those two problems go away.

According to gas industry estimates, the best cement wellbore seals will fail in 70-100 years. Is the industry going to return to replug all those wells for the rest of the watershed's lifespan? Hydro-geologists estimate the Delaware River Watershed has about a million more years. Unless, of course, we drain it dry for fracking, because once water is removed for shale gas drilling, it cannot be safely returned. "Recycling" waste water refers to using it to frack new wells.

Louis, if you need proof that shale gas drilling destroys water supplies, I suggest you listen to the people who have been adversely effected by spills, leaks, off-gassing, air pollution and methane contamination. They live in Bradford, Washington, Susquehanna, Butler and many other counties, and their video testimonials are readily available on the internet. Decide for yourself if you really think that many people from disparate corners of the state, and the world, are conspiring to make up one big lie about shale gas pollution. If you think so, then you must also believe that the sky is pink.

Right on Liz!

Louis not all renewable energy is only for the rich. Actually you can get 15% wind power at a cheaper rate from energy cooperative than Peco's standard rate. I'd recommend checking out their site. http://www.theenergy.coop/Electricity/electricity.htm

I switched and not only am I saving money but a portion of my electric now comes from PA wind farms.

Question...If Act 13 was signed into law in the first place, who voted YEA, that has now voted for the (6) year moratorium?

Question...Why didn't any other county in PA also get a (6) year moratorium for "scientific study"?

Question...Who will be doing the "scientific study" the gas and oil companies that did residents well water studies, and claimed that there was no proof that the drilling contaminated their wells, even though their well water was potable prior to the drilling and previous testing done by local testers have reports of good drinking water conditions of those residents wells, prior to the drilling.

Question...If resident wells were deemed potable drinking water prior to the drilling how could the gas industries "scientific study" deny poisoning the residents wells?
Answer to this question...Residents must have their wells tested by the industries people, which residents had know knowledge.

Question...What happens if my neighbor OK's their land for drilling and it causes damage to my property, poisons my well? etc.? Who pays for the clean up and pays for potable water tanks and water to be shipped to my home? Who covers the loss of my property value? Will it be the company or will it be the neighbor? Who will go bankrupt first, the company or the neighbor?

Question...Drilling is horizontal. How do you know they are not blasting shale under your property without permission?

The Oil and Gas Law (Act 13) eviscerates local input and control. It denies the rights of local citizens to due process and protection of basic fundamental rights.

Under the Oil and Gas Law (Act 13) PA communities are not able to shield against any harms even in residential areas. Towns could have to allow frack well sites and toxic impoundment pits as close as 300ft. from a home, school, or hospital. How many local communities have the money to fight this in court?

Act 13 also gags physicians who may be treating an illness related to industry drilling.

Ligonier Township writes the following in their challenge to The Oil and Gas Law (Act 13): "Violates the underpinnings of our representative form of government. Precludes local (elected) officials from being responsive to the desires of their constituents regarding land use planning."

Some History: The Federal Energy Policy Act of 2005 contained a provision that is known as the "Haliburton Loophole", which exempted gas drilling and extraction from requirements in the underground injection control (UIC) program of the Safe Drinking Water Act. The Loophole also exempts these companies from the Clean Air Act, and the Clean Water Act.

Consistently, drilling companies have refused to provide a (comprehensive) list of chemical additives used in tracking fluid. They claim "states secrets" for their reasoning. Among those chemicals that they have provide are known carcinogens.

The magnitude of these deposits is truly amazing, and should be considered a blessing. I do feel the moratorium is a good idea however. These deposits are not going to go anywhere. As a society we should proceed with extreme caution not extreme greed extracting these resources.

I completely support the moratorium. The impacts of drilling are just too serious to not fully consider them first. take your time, keep it safe and keep it as minimally invasive as possible the gas isn't going anywhere. check out shalestuff.com for more.

Just another example of why "fracking" is a bad idea!!!
http://www.essentialpublicradio.org/story/2012-07-05/4700-gallons-acid-spill-bradford-county-drilling-site-11679

Many locals believe in so. Virginia that last year's unprecedented earthquake (there are no fault lines where the quake occured in Mineral, VA) was indeed instigated by the fracking wells in the area. Interesting, OK use to get 50 or so 2.0 earthquakes a year. Since fracking began a decade or so ago, that has increased to over 500. Here's what bloomberg news has to say: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-12/earthquake-outbreak-in-central-u-s-tied-to-drilling-wastewater.html

Surprised when I looked up this subject that Europe has moved onto ban fracking in many areas - Britain is not as accustomed to earthquakes, so when the arose along with fracking, the took the same, smart measures as our area.

Let's face it, carbon fuel is so last century. America has always grown when we invested in new technologies - whether it was the transistor or the pc - just look at how well the economy did. It'd be awesome to put the same vision behind sustainable, renewable resources.

Was amazed the other week as I headed up to our coal region. There along the ridge in Centralia, the town dessimated by a coal mine fire, there along that ridge, incredible wind mills. If a coal town can make the change, so can we!

http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20110719/natural-gas-fracking-drinking-water-beaver-run-reservoir-pennsylvania

Renewables are too expensive, eh? Time to start smashing that bit of false information.

http://newscenter.lbl.gov/feature-stories/2012/07/26/photovoltaics-from-any-semiconductor/

This is simply a NIMBY solution. We in Montgomery, Lehigh, Berks and Chester counties are are the wealthiest areas in the state and can push our elected officials to not allow drilling. Meanwhile the poor hillbillies in the north and west of PA have no choice but to see their land and water ruined as their officials sell out to the drillers. They are leasing and selling their land for pennies on the dollar because they can barely put food on the table.

Corbett knows darn well he has NO CHANCE to win re-election if he can't carry Mont Co. and Chester County. He also knows he would lose those areas if he allowed drilling to take place there as even fellow Republicans would bulk at their water being poluted.

Money talks plain and simple. ANYONE who doesn't work in the energy industry who votes for Corbett next time around is either a brainwashed moron or partisan fool.

Hi Richard, You don't really think people in Montgomery, Lehigh, Berks and Chester counties will ignore the plight of our "hillbillie" neighbors? Most people I speak to are very alarmed by the heavy industrialization in our state. And despite the wealth of their districts, legislators in the east have typically been opposed, and outmaneuvered, by their western counterparts. It's absolutely key for people in this region to pay great attention to what's happening in Pennsylvnia's "Sacrifice Zone."