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Pennsylvania Fracking Law Opens Up Drilling On College Campuses

Posted by Soulskill on from the freshman-hazing-just-got-entertaining dept.

PolygamousRanchKid writes with this news from MotherJones: "Last year, when Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett suggested offsetting college tuition fees by leasing parts of state-owned college campuses to natural gas drillers, more than a few Pennsylvanians were left blinking and rubbing their eyes. But it was no idle threat: After quietly moving through the state Senate and House, this week the governor signed into law a bill that opens up 14 of the state's public universities to fracking, oil drilling, and coal mining on campus. Environmentalists and educators are concerned that fracking and other resource exploitation on campus could leave students directly exposed to harms like explosions, water contamination, and air pollution."

4 of 208 comments (clear)

  1. Isn't this the same state... by nuclearhazzard327 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If I recall correctly isn't PA the state with the ever burning coal mine fire? I think it was called Centrailia or something. Let's open up college campuses to mining as well. I'm sure putting a mine on the same property as drunk frat boys is a brilliant plan.

    1. Re:Isn't this the same state... by the+eric+conspiracy · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Interestingly the start of the Centralia coal fire had nothing to do with mining activities. The local town managers had the brainstorm that setting the local landfill on fire would be a positive clean-up step. Unfortunately there was a natural coal outcropping in the landfill which caught and spread underground, eventually making it into the mines.

  2. Re:Learn to spin news like this... by khallow · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Well, at least it is a good way to destroy science.

    How? Does mining have reality warping properties that destroy consistency of observation? From what it sounds, the public universities of Pennsylvania have funding trouble and this is a way to get funding. There is a problem and there is a solution.

  3. Re:LOL, welcome to united states of hurrdurr by tuxicle · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I agree - the same is true here in Colorado, where land owned by Colorado State (a land-grant university) has been open to drilling for several years already. The university owns lots of land, often many tens of miles away from the main campus, for such things as experimental farms, aircraft hangars and radar sites. Most of them have been drilled using the "horizontal" approach, so no equipment directly on site. I know this because I work on one of the remote sites, and was around when they drilled some 500 feet away from my building. The oil company folks came over and explained that we may hear odd sounds when they did the frakking (I didn't). The university has made quite a bit of money off the wells, which translated to no student fee increases for a couple of years (this year was an exception, though).