If I understand the situation in Pennsylvania, virtually all of the drilling is being done on private land where the owner has leased his property to the drilling company. Gas and oil production is a lawful use of property that has been onging in PA for more than a hundred years, but you would like voters to have had the opportunity to change that and make it illegal.
It's a tough issue because individual landowners have rights too. Absent a very compelling argument, I don't like the idea of the government telling a landowner what he can and can't do with his land. It makes no difference (at least to me) whether the government acts on laws passed by the legislature or by the voters. It's still private property and in my opinion, it's the landowners decision whether he wants to lease it to a gas company. At the same time, the landowner does NOT have the right to do things with his property that impact his neighbors in a harmful way. That is one of the reasons effective regulation of drilling and fracking are needed - to prevent that.
It's a lot like what can happen with wind farms. A wind turbine is big - about 400 feet tall and some people think they're ugly. Aside from aesthetics, they make noise, cause flicker and can be harmful to wildlfie (birds and bats). You can have situations where someone leases his property to a wind developer who does a poor job of siting the turbines. The neighbers get pretty upset if they have to put up with those impact for the next 30 years, especially when they know their neighbor is making a lot of money from rent and royalty payments. It can be a pretty divisive issue and I would imagine the same is true when someone leases his land for drilling.
I do sympathize. No one like to see an environment they love changed. I hope the confidence I have in the industry's ability to do it safely is justified.
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