Chesapeake Protests New Pipeline Rules

Susan Phillips

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Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

August 9, 2011 | 3:33 PM

Kim Paynter / WHYY/Newsworks.org

A pipeline construction site in Susquehanna County.org

Chesapeake Energy has begun its own grassroots campaign over pipeline regulations. The Scranton Times-Tribune reports on how the gas company is recruiting landowners to protest the new rules. The company sent letters to landowners, explaining that new regulations are holding up gas drilling, and therefore, their royalty checks. The new rules adopted by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and required by the Army Corps of Engineers, take into consideration the cumulative effects of the pipeline construction on surface water impacts. But Chesapeake says that review process delays drilling. New pipelines across the state are being built to get the gas to market. Chesapeake says the new regulations are leaving 128 gas wells untapped.