Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Chesapeake urges Towanda Township not to pass ordinance

The Daily Review today reported Brian Grove, Chesapeake Energy’s director of corporate development, urged the Towanda Township supervisors on Monday not to pass a post-and-bond ordinance to address damage to township roads from trucks traveling to drilling sites, but to instead enter into a road maintenance agreement with Chesapeake, saying the road maintenance agreement will be better for the township financially. Some sections of roadway "will get impacted in a pretty substantial way" from Chesapeake’s operations, which include the drilling, hydraulic fracturing, and pipeline work, Grove told the supervisors. CLICK HERE to read Chesapeake's arguments and persuasions.

One has to wonder why they would be arguing so fervently to spend more money than they have to...

Commenting on the Chesapeake proposal, No fan of drilling wrote:
"Chesapeake waved around their version of a road maintenance agreement at the supervisors/roadmasters get together in Rome last month. Short and shallow, is how I would describe it. We have a meaty road maintenance agreement (obtained from the very helpful Bradford County Conservation District) and presented it to Chesapeake and they told us we can't have a road maintenance agreement with them without an ordinance (which we do not yet have, but will). What is wrong with the picture? Road maintenance agreements are fine without an ordinance, as long as it is Chesapeake's version of a road maintenance agreement. They will use any excuse they can not to have to discuss, negotiate, or deal with a meaty, meaningful road maintenance agreement presented by the township.
Sounds a lot like the way they deal with the landowners around the leasing of land. They love their own lease, they hate landowner revisions.
Townships should present their own versions of road maintenance agreements to Chesapeake as the starting point for discussion/negotiation, and see how far they get. Also, compare what you have to what Chesapeake is offering you, and you will see there is a big difference in detail and quality.
I am sorry that Chesapeake feels that dealing with so many different townships is a burden in this state. I know that they would like to use standard agreements to make things easy. However, the design of our Commonwealth is what they bought into when they came here, and although they would prefer to make the townships non-entities, we are true entities of government, however small, and must be dealt with. "

3 comments:

  1. In Argyle, TX on top of the Barnett Shale, engineers figured out the cost of gas drilling's toll on roads:

    Argyle figures out cost of gas drilling’s toll on roads
    By Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe / Staff Writer

    ARGYLE — Engineers have come up with a figure for the town to rebuild its roads so that they can handle drilling traffic: $311,520 per lane per mile.

    more...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Is there anyone left who would trust a Chesapeake Energy representative when he says the company would rather spent MORE money fixing roads than post-and-bond would provide? I should think the laughter would be so loud that it would bring the meeting to a halt!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Brian Grove should be investigated to see if he improperly tried to influence gas related policy when he was Baker's Chief of Staff while negotiating his employment deal with Chesapeake. This guy makes me sick.

    ReplyDelete

RURAL IMPACT VIDEOS, 6 parts

Natural gas development in Colorado, the impacts on communities, environment and public health. A primer for public servants and residents of counties that care for their lifestyles.

Drilling for Gas in Bradford County, PA ... Listen!

Cattle Drinking Drilling Waste!

EPA... FDA... Hello? How many different ways are we going to have to eat this? ... Thank you TXSharon for all you do! ... Stay tuned in at http://txsharon.blogspot.com

Landfarms

A film by Txsharon. Thank you Sharon for all you do. Click HERE to read the complete article on Bluedaze: Landfarms: Spreading Toxic Drilling Waste on Farmland

SkyTruth: Upper Green River Valley - A View From Above