By Audrey Carleton (Capital & Main)
An Oklahoma-based natural gas producer that was fined $1.9 million in 2021 for damaging wetlands and streams at 76 drilling sites in Pennsylvania has had more than a dozen of those sites added to a list of projects that have been ordered fast-tracked by the Trump administration to address what he calls the nation’s “energy emergency.”
In addition to the fine, Chesapeake Energy, now Expand Energy, was required to restore 55 acres of wetlands and nearly 4,500 linear feet of streams. Wetlands are considered environmentally critical, sometimes referred to as “earth’s kidneys,” because they improve water quality and filter pollutants; they also help reduce erosion and prevent flooding. Chesapeake has a history dating back to 2013 of improperly filling in wetlands by discharging drilling fluids, sand, dirt, and rocks.
Chesapeake applied for retroactive federal permits to come into legal compliance on 17 of its fracking projects in Pennsylvania. Now, the firm’s wait may be nearly over.
Chesapeake’s fracking operations are among more than 600 projects across the country that have been earmarked by the Trump administration as energy emergencies. The list includes a pipeline to be bored under Lake Michigan, a deepwater export port off the coast of Louisiana, and a controversial plan by Chevron to build a housing development atop one of its old oil fields in northern Orange County, Calif.
The projects were added to the Army Corps of Engineers’ standing list of jobs that are considered priorities — typically those impacted by natural disasters such as hurricanes, tropical storms, and floods. Such emergency work is prompted by “dire” situations that “require short cutting the normal permitting,” said David Bookbinder, director of law and policy at the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project.
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