Political Schism Prompts Prominent Drilling Activist to Quit Coalition

Delaware River­keeper Network

A reporter from 6ABC inter­views Delaware River­keeper Maya von Rossum.

Maya von Rossum, the head of the Delaware River­keeper Net­work, and a com­mis­sioner with the Citizen’s Mar­cel­lus Shale Com­mis­sion, announced today that she’s resigned from her post as a com­mis­sioner because the rest of the group refused to sup­port a drilling mora­to­rium. Von Rossum announced her deci­sion through a press release.

“The fail­ure to artic­u­late a need for a mora­to­rium on fur­ther drilling and/or drilling per­mits until needed pro­tec­tions were put in place and needed stud­ies to inform those reg­u­la­tions are done was a con­scious over­sight.  The lack of pub­lic­ity over the hear­ings needed to ensure cit­i­zen aware­ness of the oppor­tu­nity to speak out on this impor­tant issue was another major short com­ing,” said van Rossum.

Activists cre­ated the Citizen’s Com­mis­sion as an alter­na­tive to Gov­er­nor Corbett’s hand-picked Mar­cel­lus Shale Advi­sory Com­mis­sion, which released its own rec­om­men­da­tions in July. Drilling foes crit­i­cized Corbett’s Com­mis­sion as stacked with pro-industry voices, and few envi­ron­men­tal­ists. The Citizen’s Mar­cel­lus Shale Com­mis­sion held its own hear­ings across the state in Sep­tem­ber to seek input on gas drilling from Penn­syl­va­nia residents.

Chris Lilien­thal, a spokesman for the Citizen’s Mar­cel­lus Shale Com­mis­sion, says the group has yet to final­ize its recommendations.

“The Cit­i­zen Mar­cel­lus Shale Com­mis­sion has not released a final report, so any com­ment on its con­tent is pre­ma­ture. Com­mis­sion mem­bers have worked tire­lessly to com­plete the report and achieve con­sen­sus on rec­om­men­da­tions through­out the week.”

The announce­ment comes just days before the Cit­i­zens’ Com­mis­sion is sched­uled to announce its report.The Delaware River­keeper Net­work is the pri­mary force pres­sur­ing the Delaware River Basin Com­mis­sion to extend the cur­rent drilling mora­to­rium in the Delaware River watershed.