PA Environment Digest Blog: Republican Herald Editorial: One-Sided Discussions On Issues Don’t Promote True Progress, EPA Visit Was Not A 'Roundtable Discussion,' But A 'Rally' For Natural Gas In Delaware River Basin

This editorial first appeared in the Republican Herald (Schuylkill County), Citizens Voice (Luzerne County) and Scranton Times (Lackawanna County) on March 11, 2025--

There’s really no fine line between what constitutes a political rally and an open, honest discussion about issues on which reasonable people can disagree.

One is a vehicle politicians will use to affirm their own viewpoints, to work a partisan crowd into a lather on party-line issues without needing to worry about any of those pesky opposing viewpoints muddying the message.

The other is what the nation needs more of if it really wants to find the middle ground on the critical issues that face our community, our nation and our world as it moves forward in challenging times.

U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan, R-8, Dallas Twp., would serve his district best at the outset of his political career if he got a better grasp on the difference.

On March 2, Bresnahan led what he billed as an “environmental roundtable” with “state and local elected officials and stakeholders” in Swiftwater, Monroe County.

On its surface, that’s the type of healthy back-and-forth discussion between experts and concerned citizens on both sides that could enlighten the region.

However, it turned out this was not a “roundtable discussion” about environmental issues at all, but a rally to promote the economic benefits of natural gas drilling within the Delaware River watershed.

The Delaware River Basin Commission placed a moratorium on fracking in 2010 before banning it permanently in 2021 in places like Wayne and Pike counties locally, saying it posed “signiﬁcant, immediate and long-term risks to the development, conservation, utilization, management and preservation” of the river’s water resources.

Bresnahan’s “roundtable” brought forward some concerns from Republican lawmakers and landowners in the Delaware River watershed that have been long talked about but still worth consideration.

Namely, the fact that Pennsylvania’s other two river basins — the Susquehanna and Ohio — do allow fracking to certain degrees.

A discussion of fracking’s environmental impacts, especially with any evidence garnered through several years’ worth of drilling in other parts of the same state, has plenty of merit given what the natural gas industry has brought financially to neighboring communities.

But, there is more public value in honest discussion than political grandstanding.

An effective use of that forum should have included insight from the DRBC to explain why it feels the area it represents is perhaps different than the other two basins, leading to an examination of areas where fracking maybe could be accomplished with lesser long-term environmental impacts.

Instead, it registered as little more than a rehashing of the same partisan economic talking points that have little to do with legitimate environmental concerns.

That, it weren’t for the ban, there is enough natural gas in the Marcellus Shale under their feet to make landowners a lot of money.

The “Who cares?” attitude about the drawbacks to that offered by the Trump administration’s actions and perpetuated by his recently appointed Environmental Protection Agency chief Lee Zeldin don’t contribute to finding the most sensible solutions to address all concerns.

“Even if you’re an agency like the EPA where your core mission is protecting human health and the environment,” Zeldin said, “you can’t be out of touch with the concerns across America about the state of this economy. We have some historic laws on the books that get celebrated on both sides of the aisle… but they have to be applied the right way.”

Certainly, finding how best to apply those laws deserves input from environmental experts, not simply a New York attorney whose charge from Trump is to dramatically slash the EPA’s budget, workforce and reach.

These are going to be a difficult four years under the Trump administration for anyone who considers themselves an environmentalist.

But true education of the people through discussion — no matter the issue or the party of the elected official running it — should be less a reinforcement of ideology than a way to push for understanding of why and how things can change, and why and how they shouldn’t.

NewsClips On ‘Roundtable’:

-- Republican Herald Editorial: One-Sided Discussions On Issues Don’t Promote True Progress [PDF of Article]

-- River Reporter: Local Congressmen, EPA Reopen Fracking Conversation In Delaware River Basin In NE PA

-- EPA Administrator Travels To NE PA To Talk About Unleashing American Energy Dominance In Monroe County

Resource Links - Shale Gas Health, Environmental Impacts:

-- Frackland Video Tour, with Lois Bower-Bjornson, Clean Air Council

-- PA Shale Gas & Public Health Conference Attended By Nearly 480 People Featured Health Experts, Scientists, Advocacy Groups On Health, Environmental Impacts Of Shale Gas Development [PaEN]

-- Part I - Environmental Impacts: State Dept. Of Health, Penn State Medical Webinars On Caring For Persons Living & Working In Communities With Oil & Natural Gas Extraction [PaEN]

-- Part II - Health Impacts: State Dept. Of Health, Penn State Medical Webinars On Caring For Persons Living & Working In Communities With Oil & Natural Gas Extraction [PaEN]

-- University Of Pittsburgh School Of Public Health Studies Find Shale Gas Wells Can Make Asthma Worse; Children Have An Increased Chance Of Developing Lymphoma Cancer; Slightly Lower Birth Weights [PaEN]

-- State Dept. Of Health Apologizes For Not Listening To Communities Suffering Health Impacts From Shale Gas Development; New Health Study Results ‘Just The Tip Of The Iceberg’ [PaEN]

-- Physicians For Social Responsibility PA’s Dr. Ned Ketyer Shares Summary Of Studies Of Shale Gas Development Impacts On Human Health [PaEN]