A lot of people I’ve talked to have expressed concerns about their elected representatives getting contributions from oil and gas or personally benefitting from natural gas development.
Compounding the problem, a lot of communities have organized committees to deal with Marcellus development issues by appointing “stakeholders” to the boards. Instead of defining stakeholders as community members with long-term interests in the quality of life for all people in the area, these committees amplify the voices of those who would gain most from this development. When they do good work, they ask, how can we train workers for this new industry? How can we make this process go more smoothly?
But seldom do they ask, is this even good for our community at all?
In one recent example, Lehman Township in Luzerne County agreed to let EnCana begin Marcellus drilling in the township though some residents wanted their supervisors to vote no.
Only one of the supervisors could put forward the motion, because “two of the supervisors, Ide and Sutton, have personal ties to gas drilling. Ide leased some of his own land for gas drilling, and Sutton consults property owners concerning drilling.” The third member presented the motion, and the other two seconded it.
I highly recommend a blog post I stumbled on called “Gas Drilling, Conflict of Interests, and Lobbying.”
It focuses on New York law, but perhaps Pennsylvania has some similar guidelines? According to New York’s Commission on Public Integrity,
As a general matter, recusal would be required if the facts and circumstances suggest that the subject trustee has a substantial, personal interest in the outcome of the BID budget vote. Even the appearance of such an interest would require recusal, in order to maintain public confidence in government.
This is a problem a lot of Pennsylvania communities need to address head on. Both of the lawyers the blogger consulted “strongly recommended that the public should attend those local board meetings and ask each board member, on the record, to clarify the leased status of their and their family’s real property holdings.“
Frackland 
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