STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) -- Sound decisions about how to proceed with gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale can't be made without looking at how they might fit with other energy choices in a time of growing demand, Pennsylvania's former environmental protection secretary said.
John Hanger led the Department of Environmental Protection under former Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell. He said the commonwealth has been at the forefront of shale gas development, and can both produce gas and protect the environment.
Speaking at a lecture Monday at Penn State University, Hanger said "there are clearly impacts from gas and gas production." Environmental concerns include air emissions, methane leakage and gas migration, he said.
The Centre Daily Times http://bit.ly/nISNOw reported that Hanger said there was a difference, though, between gas migration and fluids used in the process called fracturing returning to groundwater tables. He cited researchers who found the latter hasn't happened.
"There are clearly impacts from gas and gas production," he said, reiterating his opinion that if there was another choice, gas wouldn't be used. "But unfortunately we get 55 percent of our total energy in the U.S. from coal and oil."
Pennsylvania's natural gas boom is occurring at a time of peak energy production, Hanger said. Oil imports are dropping and renewable energy is growing. Coal makes up a smaller percentage of energy produced in the U.S. than in the past, while natural gas accounted for 24 percent of energy produced in 2010 -- double what it accounted for in 1990.
Old power plants put out toxic pollution including mercury, arsenic and lead, whereas gas-fired power plants meet the federal Environmental Protection Agency's proposed stiffer standards for power plants.
"The human health toll from old coal-fired power plants is truly, I think, remarkable," he said, citing the proposed EPA rule that would save up to 34,000 lives a year by cutting pollution that comes mainly from coal-fired power plants.
"As we think about how we're powering our society, you have to come to grips with these issues," he said. "If you want to, for environmental reasons, ban gas then you have to answer what happens next."
In the U.S., that would likely mean more wind and solar power, but also a lot more coal and oil and higher energy prices, he said.
Hanger briefly referred to the proposal Gov. Tom Corbett unveiled Monday for allowing counties to institute impact fees on gas development. Corbett said the industry in Pennsylvania is not a newborn, but is not yet crawling. Hanger disagreed.
"We've got at least a big teenager on our hands," he said. "This is an industry that's already providing 6 percent of U.S. total gas."
Hanger said he fully supports a drilling tax in Pennsylvania and cited states including Alaska and Texas that have significant taxes on energy production.
The Penn State Marcellus Center for Outreach and Research and the Earth and Environmental Sciences Institute sponsored Hanger's talk.