Local Citizens, Civic and Business Leaders Launch Petition to Resume Oil and Gas Development in the Allegheny National Forest

WARREN, Pa., Oct. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- In a petition distributed by the Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Association (POGAM) and Allegheny Forest Alliance (AFA), nearly 2,000 citizens, and civic and business leaders from Elk, Forest, Warren and McKean counties have called for President Obama and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to lift a ban on oil and gas development by the U.S. Forest Service, which effectively has halted drilling on privately owned mineral lands underlying the Allegheny National Forest. The petition was also mailed to Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell to encourage a greater effort by the Commonwealth to support a critical element of northwestern Pennsylvania's economy.

In a historically unprecedented action, local and regional managers of the Allegheny National Forest have banned oil and natural gas exploration and barred mineral owners from accessing their property throughout the forest, effectively seizing the development rights to privately owned oil, gas and mineral resources. The ban has shut down oil and natural gas exploration and stymied production in the forest, where the industry has operated for decades in cooperation with the U.S. government. The petition maintains that the ban illegally violates Pennsylvania's grant of consent to the United States in 1921 to acquire the forest and also violates the protection of private property rights in the federal law, the Weeks Act of 1911, under which it was acquired.

"The behavior by the Forest Service is most irresponsible, and it amounts to the unlawful taking of private property," said Stephen W. Rhoads, POGAM president. "State records show that fewer than 50 wells, all of them permitted prior to the drilling ban imposed on January 1, have been drilled in the Allegheny National Forest during 2009. The Forest Service has prevented the drilling of between 200-300 wells that would have otherwise occurred. These undrilled wells translate into private investment of nearly $100 million and jeopardize hundreds of good-paying jobs in the region. The action of the Forest Service amounts to a full-scale assault on the economic health of the families and communities living in and around the Allegheny National Forest."

Private oil and gas development within the Allegheny National Forest accounts for at least 20 percent of Pennsylvania's oil production and as much as 10 percent of Pennsylvania's natural gas production. It contributes tens of millions of dollars annually into the regional economy of northwest Pennsylvania and western New York.

For decades, the U.S. Forest Service and the oil and natural gas industry have worked cooperatively to manage oil and gas development. The petition represents a strong consensus among citizens and local community leaders about the importance of this industry and the condemnation of the Forest Services' current management practices to immobilize the region's economic recovery and progress.

The Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Association is the non-profit trade association of the Commonwealth's independent oil and gas producers. The association promotes the general welfare of Pennsylvania's crude oil and natural gas exploration and production industry. The association and its members are committed to the economical and environmentally responsible development, production and use of the Commonwealth's crude oil and natural gas resources.

The Allegheny Forest Alliance is a non-profit coalition of school districts, townships, recreation groups, businesses and others. The AFA supports and promotes sustainable forestry, environmental stewardship and multiple-use management of the Allegheny National Forest and other public forestlands on the Allegheny Plateau in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Editor's note: The following is a copy of the petition's preamble, addressed to President Barack Obama and Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell. The hard copy of the 1,950 petitioners was delivered to The White House; scanned copies were sent electronically to state and federal elected officials.

PETITION TO EXTEND ECONOMIC STIMULUS POLICIES TO THE ALLEGHENY NATIONAL FOREST REGION OF PENNSYLVANIA

    To:  Barack H. Obama, President of the United States
         Edward G. Rendell, Governor of Pennsylvania

I stand in strong support of the petition to extend the benefits of the nation's and state's current economic stimulus plans and policies to the Allegheny National Forest (ANF) Region of Northwest Pennsylvania.

Unelected officials of the U. S. Forest Service have chosen to exclude the ANF region from participating in the nation's economic recovery. The Forest Service itself acknowledged as recently as July 30, 2009, that "It is clear from all points of view that oil and gas drilling, support and production are overwhelmingly important sectors of Elk, Forest, McKean and Warren Counties (four-county area)."

Nonetheless, in historically unprecedented actions taken in the past year, the Forest Service banned all new exploration and development drilling in the ANF and nationalized or seized the development rights to 480,000 acres of privately owned oil, gas and mineral lands, as well as all the hard-rock minerals located on these lands. This has been done in violation of hundreds-upon-hundreds of century-old deed rights, Constitutional prohibitions against the unlawful taking of private property and the express terms of the Commonwealth's original grant of consent to the United States to acquire the Forest.

Private oil and gas development within the Allegheny National Forest, which makes up approximately 35 percent of the land mass of the four-county area, is an economic engine that annually puts tens of millions of dollars into the regional economy of northwest Pennsylvania and western New York. It accounts for as much as 20 percent of Pennsylvania's oil production and 10 percent of its gas production. This level of production, not to mention promising new development and job opportunities from Marcellus Shale natural gas production, are now being lost and are in danger of being lost forever.

Six lawsuits have been filed in federal court in the past year by citizens seeking to protect their rights. Oil and gas producers and the working people of our region are being cast as criminals by the Forest Service and are being threatened with arrest and prosecution for doing nothing more than developing their own mineral lands as they have been doing since 1859 -- long before there ever was a U.S. Forest Service or a National Forest.

As concerned citizens, we cannot believe that you or your administration would continence the continuation of such unwarranted, harmful and irresponsible actions by any arm of the federal government at any time, and particularly at this time of severe and dramatic economic crisis. We need your help to protect our jobs and communities.

We strongly urge you to take immediate steps to have the U. S. Forest Service cease its ill-conceived actions. These actions have and will continue to result in the crippling of the regional oil and gas industry, the continued loss of good jobs, and severe social and economic harms to the communities and citizens of our region.