Inquirer Editorial: Even in gas country, there's common ground

Like much in the country today, the debate over Pennsylvania's shale-gas boom often seems hopelessly polarized - an endless and largely useless standoff between environmentalists who want the gas to stay in the ground and energy executives who think it's theirs to exploit unhindered.

So only a cynic could fail to be encouraged by a new collaboration that brings environmental and energy interests together. The Center for Sustainable Shale Development debuted last month with the goal of setting standards for environmentally responsible extraction of shale fuels. It stakes out a reasonable middle ground between those who would end drilling forever and those insisting that it continue unimpeded by further regulation.

A project of Pittsburgh's Heinz Endowments and Philadelphia's William Penn Foundation, the center includes among its partners the environmental groups Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future (PennFuture), the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, the Environmental Defense Fund, and the Group Against Smog and Pollution (GASP); and energy companies Chevron, Shell, Consol Energy, and EQT Corp. The center's board includes former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and former Environmental Protection Agency chief and New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman.

Its inaugural initiative is a set of 15 standards that the parties agreed to after two years, in what Heinz president Robert Vagt told The Inquirer was "a hell of a process." They include practices to curb air pollution, maximize water recycling, protect groundwater, and minimize the toxicity of the fluids used to dislodge fossil fuels in the hydraulic fracturing process.

Companies that meet the standards, as certified by an independent auditor, will gain the center's seal of approval. The idea is similar to the independent certification regime for green buildings known as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED.

The standards are meant to apply to drilling in the Appalachian region, including the Marcellus Shale formation underlying much of Pennsylvania. Participants hope it will be a model for other regions experiencing similar energy booms.

Unfortunately, some prominent environmental groups and energy companies are not participating in the effort. A Sierra Club official even went so far as to denounce it, declaring that "the majority of natural gas must stay in the ground." Meanwhile, the industry group Energy in Depth has declared Heinz a "notorious funder of all things opposed to natural-gas development."

The group's success so far stands as a rebuke to such extremism.