Environmental group urges stronger health protections as committee hears gas industry briefing

Alice Liu, policy analyst at the Clean Air Council, told the House Consumer Protection, Technology and Utilities Committee that residents who live near oil and gas operations face documented health risks and that state policy should reflect those harms.

"We don't have to choose between clean energy and economic development. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a false trade off," Liu said in opening remarks, and she urged the General Assembly to consider health-based protections for communities near extraction and processing sites.

Liu framed her testimony around three industry segments — upstream production, midstream transmission and storage, and downstream distribution — and emphasized methane and other pollutants. "Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that accelerates climate change when burned or when it leaks," she said, adding that fracked gas also contains volatile organic compounds and hazardous air pollutants linked in peer‑reviewed studies to cancer and respiratory, neurological and reproductive harms.

The testimony cited a University of Pittsburgh 2023 study that Liu said found "increased risks of asthma and childhood lymphoma in those living near gas wells." Liu also said she spoke with Walter Tzu, identified in her remarks as a board member of Physicians for Social Responsibility, Pennsylvania, who said, "to ignore the health risks of fracking jeopardizes the health of Pennsylvanians who live above the Marcellus Shale and should be a strong impetus to accelerate a move to renewable green energy." Walter Tzu did not testify in the committee meeting; his remarks were reported by Liu.

Liu provided additional context about the population she described as disproportionately exposed: "There are nearly 1,500,000 people in Pennsylvania who live within half a mile of an active oil or gas well, compressor station, or processing plant." She told members there are more than 2,000 peer‑reviewed health studies that link unconventional oil and gas operations to adverse health outcomes and urged the committee to examine state implementation of federal rules. She noted that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, "who's responsible for designing the state plan to implement the Environmental Protection Agency's methane rule," is developing a plan to meet the EPA rule finalized in March 2024.

Liu also raised economic and reliability concerns connected to gas dependence. She told the committee that Pennsylvania produces far more gas than it uses — "only about 25% of it" — and that exports and market dynamics can raise local energy prices. She argued that greater deployment of renewables and energy storage would reduce public health harms and price volatility while creating jobs.

Industry witnesses at the same hearing challenged parts of Liu's characterization. Jim Welty, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, disputed the University of Pittsburgh study’s conclusions and criticized its methods, and Andrew Tubbs, president of the Energy Association of Pennsylvania, said he did not fully agree with Liu’s framing on prices and economic impacts. Both witnesses emphasized existing state and federal regulation of the industry.

Why it matters: Liu urged the legislature to weigh health impacts alongside energy and economic considerations. The testimony raises questions about how the commonwealth will implement federal methane rules, how exposures near operations will be addressed, and how the state balances gas production with renewable deployment.

The committee did not take formal action on the testimony at the meeting. Members followed the presentations with questions about methane mitigation, well water, pipeline permitting and the pace of infrastructure replacement. Liu’s written testimony was part of the hearing record submitted to the committee.