Letters to the Editor | Sept. 14, 2023

Pennsylvania’s natural gas industry produces reliable, affordable energy under some of the strictest standards in the world and a robust regulatory system to protect public health and our environment. The editorial “Fracking is making Pennsylvania sick. Lawmakers must act.” (Sept. 7) ignores these long-standing protections as well as the significant limitations of studies that rely on proximity and incomplete data collection.

As an industry, we utilize data, facts, and science to safely produce and deliver energy in cleaner ways. The natural gas and oil industry has invested millions of dollars into the communities in which we operate to help safeguard public health and the environment while spurring economic growth and sustaining nearly 100,000 direct jobs in the state. Pennsylvania also produces nearly 20% of U.S. natural gas. Considering half of all U.S. households use natural gas-generated electricity, a moratorium on development could have devastating impacts on consumers as well.

It’s important to understand the complex interplay between exposure, health outcomes, and the many compounding factors involved. Policies recognizing this while supporting investment in Pennsylvania are what’s needed to power our economy and a cleaner future.

Stephanie Catarino Wissman, executive director, American Petroleum Institute Pennsylvania, Harrisburg

When questions arise about open or closed primary elections in Pennsylvania, I find myself wondering if it might help if we rethink the nature of primary elections themselves.

If the purpose of a primary election is for a political party, or parties, to select candidates for the next general election, why is public money used to pay for them? This is a party matter; therefore, the political party should pay for its primary election.

This could eliminate any sense of disenfranchisement — individuals who choose not to belong to a political party would not be treated unfairly since it is the respective party’s money paying for the election. People could always join a political party and enjoy the benefits of belonging to the party by voting in their privately funded primary elections.

Stephen Paesani, Philadelphia

Earlier this month, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy stated that “if we move forward with an impeachment inquiry, it would occur through a vote on the floor of the People’s House and not through a declaration by one person.” Well, now we have a declaration by one person to proceed with that inquiry. Speaker McCarthy knows he doesn’t have the votes in the House to proceed because of a small group of rational Republicans, but he is held hostage by the radical Freedom Caucus who have set McCarthy’s agenda going forward. Next up? Spending bills to avoid a government shutdown. But a shutdown is what the radical right in the Republican-held House wants, and I doubt Speaker McCarthy has the courage to clash with them. He hasn’t shown it to date.

Bill Maginnis, North Wales

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