DRBC Delays Action on Natural Gas Regulations Again

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.

October 7, 2011 | 12:29 PM

Mary Cummings Jordan / WHYY

A view of the Delaware river from Bucks County, Pa.

The Delaware River Basin Commission has postponed their special meeting on draft natural gas regulations for the second time. The DRBC had originally planned to take up the proposal at its regularly scheduled meeting in September. But then the Commission announced a special meeting for October 21.
A moratorium on drilling in the Delaware river basin is in place until the new rules are approved. Anti-drilling activists have been planning protests for the meeting, saying they want the DRBC to do a comprehensive environmental impact study before enacting any new drilling rules.
At a September rally in Philadelphia, gas-drilling critic Josh Fox promised to “shut down” the DRBC if they approved the proposed new rules.
Through a press release issued today, the DRBC says more time is needed to process all the public comments and publish a new draft of the regulations. The Commission received about 69,000 comments. The new draft will be posted on their website November 7, and the new meeting is scheduled for November 21.