Rendell discusses state monitoring of gas drilling opponents

HARRISBURG -- Gov. Ed Rendell will hold a news conference this evening concerning media reports that the state Office of Homeland Security has been keeping track of people who attended recent meetings opposed to Marcellus shale drilling, including a Pittsburgh City Council meeting and gatherings in Allegheny, Butler and Philadelphia counties.

Gene Stilp, a Harrisburg citizen activist and opponent of natural gas drilling, said the Philadelphia City Paper and the Harrisburg Patriot-News obtained leaked information about the monitoring efforts by state Homeland Security officials, which were supposedly done in the interest of public safety.

Mr. Stilp said word got out recently when the state office mistakenly sent an e-mail about its tracking efforts to an opponent of the drilling. One event that was monitored was a screening of the anti-gas drilling film "Gasland'' in Philadelphia, as well as a Pittsburgh council meeting about gas drilling, he said.

"I am demanding that the state House and Senate hold hearings on this,'' he said today. "This is not the way Pennsylvania government is supposed to run.''

James Powers, homeland security director, told the Patriot-News that public safety could be at issue, because there have been "five to 10" incidents of vandalism around the state related to natural gas, one in Venango County swhere a person fired shots at a natural gas tank. The tracking information was also sent to Marcellus gas "stakeholders,'' he told the paper.

Included in the security office's intelligence gathering is information about public meetings that anti-drilling activists were at or plan to attend, Mr. Powers told the newspaper.

Jan Jarrett of the environmental group Penn Future, which has raised concerns about gas drilling efforts, called such tracking by the state "kind of creepy.''

First published on September 14, 2010 at 12:58 pm