Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell told attendees of a Philadelphia clean energy conference that he believes hydraulic fracturing (fracking) can be done safely, but added that he supports the de facto moratorium on drilling in the Delaware River Basin and would even back a genuine one.

Meanwhile officials with the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), the interstate compact that manages the basin’s waterways, said that although there has been no official progress on an agreement to revise the basin’s water quality standards, negotiations were being held between its four member states. Such an agreement could open the basin to natural gas drilling.

Rendell — one of the keynote speakers during Friday’s 2012 Clean Energy Conference, an event sponsored by Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future, a group also known as PennFuture — said he “would support putting a moratorium on the Delaware Basin right now.

“But we’ve got to look at it and continue to go forward,” the former Democratic governor said, according to a report by StateImpact Pennsylvania. “We can’t just say stop, because stop would mean more petroleum, more coal-fired power plants. Look, if we stop gas production, we’re going to have petroleum. There are no easy answers.”

It was almost one year ago to the date that Rendell — a former Philadelphia mayor who served two terms as Pennsylvania governor, from 2003 to January 2011 — had blasted the natural gas industry for its reluctance to pay a state severance tax and other issues (see Shale Daily, Sept. 9, 2011).

But Rendell made it clear that he was still a strong supporter of natural gas development in the state. He also warned environmentalists against minimizing the economic benefits from fracking, for fear of losing support among citizens who support Marcellus Shale development.

“There are people in the Northern Tier of Pennsylvania who were consigned to the fact that they would die poor and have nothing to pass on to their children,” Rendell said. “When the environmental community takes positions that to the average person seem to be anti-economic growth, we lose them.”

The former governor conceded that having a moratorium along the eastern side of the state, but not elsewhere, would also cause consternation among the state’s citizens.

“One thing about Pennsylvania, you can’t do one thing in the east, one thing in the west, and then one thing in the center,” Rendell said. “That’s how the anti-Philadelphia bias occurs.”

Katherine O’Hara, spokeswoman for the DRBC, told NGI’s Shale Daily that there was no discussion to revise the basin’s water quality standards at its last meeting on Sept. 12, the commission’s fourth meeting in 2012. The next meeting is scheduled for Dec. 5.

“Our commissioners did not make any statements [about the proposed standards] during their last meeting,” O’Hara said Monday. But she added that Kelly Jean Heffner, Pennsylvania’s second alternate to the DRBC and its current chairman, told the media that there were ongoing technical discussions between staff members for the four states in the compact — Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

“[Heffner] said they’re meeting amongst themselves and with each other to figure this out,” O’Hara said. “They’re trying to resolve some of the issues that are ongoing, and figuring out a way to move forward. [But] essentially, there is no new news. There has been no movement or discussion — officially or publically — on where, when, how or even if they are going to adopt new rules.”

The DRBC was set to vote on a proposal to revise its water quality regulations last November, but the meeting was canceled and the proposal postponed indefinitely after Delaware Gov. Jack Markell said he opposed it (see Shale Daily, Nov. 21, 2011). A de facto moratorium on fracking in the basin remains in effect.

With Delaware in opposition, Pennsylvania officials and Gov. Tom Corbett have been trying to convince New York and New Jersey officials to agree to the revised regulations (see Shale Daily, June 21). New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration apparently is working on a plan to allow limited high-volume fracking in five counties in the state’s Southern Tier (see Shale Daily, June 14). The easternmost portion of one of those counties, Broome, lies in the Delaware River Basin.

Meanwhile, New Jersey officials have called for the DRBC to enact a fracking pilot program with the commission in charge of rules and oversight (see Shale Daily, April 20, 2011). New Jersey also wants drilling initially limited to no more than 30 well pads and 300 wells in the first two years.