Rendell angers drillers at Marcellus Shale conference

Ed Rendell may not get invited to another Marcellus Shale industry conference any time soon.

A week after the former governor dressed down the natural gas industry at its first conference in Philadelphia - "the industry frankly has been a great disappointment to me" - tongues are still wagging about Rendell's remarks.

Rendell, who one news outlet called the "skunk at the garden party," admonished gas operators for "screwing up" and giving anti-drilling activists legitimacy. He encouraged the industry to reverse its opposition to a severance tax on gas production.

"If you did that, it would be amazing how the tide of public opinion would begin to turn. . . . The goodwill would be enormous. It would be priceless."

Rendell's position on the severance tax hardly came as a shock. What annoyed the industry was his "selective" recollection of events and facts, including his own administration's success at strengthening regulation, said Kathryn Z. Klaber, the president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, which sponsored the Shale Gas Insight conference.

"What was the most surprising to everybody is how outdated Ed Rendell's comments were," Klaber said.

For instance, Rendell chided his hosts for discharging inadequately treated wastewater from hydraulic fracturing, the extraction process that involves the injection of high-pressure fluid into deep gas-bearing rock.

"Opposition is growing because some public water utilities that sit downstream from big gas wastewater treatment plants have struggled to stay under the maximum for contaminants," Rendell said.

"You need to take the steps to make sure that frack water is disposed of in an environmentally responsible way," he said.

Actually, the industry said, that issue has already been addressed.

What Rendell did not mention is that wastewater rules were tightened dramatically in the last year of his administration. But the rules did not apply to about 15 treatment plants that were allowed to continue discharging under a previous agreement with his administration.

Facing a lawsuit from environmentalists, Gov. Corbett's secretary of environmental protection, Michael Krancer, in April called for all Marcellus drillers to halt discharges. For four months now, the industry has complied, according to DEP.

Klaber said both administrations should take credit for creating higher standards for natural gas wastewater discharges than those imposed on any other industry.

"We have a situation now where wastewater from my member companies is not going into Pennsylvania's waterways," she said. "I think it's been an important, definitive development that's made a big difference in public opinion."

The coalition also took issue with Rendell's portrayal of the industry as careless. They noted that Rendell struck a different tone in March, when he co-signed a letter to the New York Times protesting its portrayal of Pennsylvania's regulations as lax.

"Pennsylvania has the strongest enforcement program of any state with gas drilling," Rendell said in the letter. "Period."

Exactly what Rendell had to gain by calling out drillers at the conference is not entirely clear. His office did not respond to a request for comment.

His appearance at the conference was arranged, sponsored, and promoted by Ballard Spahr L.L.P., the law firm where he is a partner.

But after Rendell's speech, there was not a stampede of potential clients to Ballard's booth at the trade show. Mark Stewart, the firm's chairman, said in an e-mailed statement that Rendell's comments were his alone.

"Gov. Rendell was completely in character," Stewart said. "His comments inevitably reflect his unique perspective as a former governor, and that's precisely what they were - his views."

A year ago, at an industry conference in Texas where Rendell said the tide of public opinion was turning against shale drilling, he offered himself as an advocate once he got out of office.

But those bridges look charred. He said last week that if the industry volunteered to pay a severance tax, its leaders could stand next to Corbett or former Gov. Tom Ridge to make the announcement. They could even stand with him - "although I assume that's not very likely now," he said with a smile.

It was the only line that drew a laugh from the audience.

To hear ex-Gov. Ed Rendell encouraging acceptance of a severance tax to counter opposition to the industry, go to www.philly.com/shale

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