Senate candidate Barletta talks energy at CNX offices
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Congressman Lou Barletta
Congressman Lou Barletta, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, answers question during Monday's policy roundtable with CNX Resources about the future of Pennsylvania natural gas in Southpointe.
Lou Barletta has spent much of his life in northeastern Pennsylvania, in what – for generations – was commonly recognized as anthracite coal country. That industry, of course, has diminished, a victim of strict environmental regulations and decreased demand.
“I saw what happened to our area once coal was no longer a dominant source,” he said. “When coal left, opportunities left, and we would watch people leave.”
But he can still feel the energy.
Barletta, now a congressman from the Hazleton area, was in Cecil Township Monday afternoon, in a region where bituminous coal isn’t the player it once was.
Yet, he was enthusiastic about what is happening, and what could further happen, with another underground energy source that is plentiful across the commonwealth: natural gas.
“I believe the gas industry has the ability to bring people back,” he said during a roundtable discussion with a dozen CNX Resources representatives at the company’s headquarters in Southpointe.
Barletta, a U.S. Representative, is running against incumbent Democrat Bob Casey for a seat in the Senate. He discussed energy and government – and the entanglement of both – during a 30-minute question-and-answer session with the group.
“We’re seeing a renewed interest in coal as an industry and in manufacturing,” he said. “We’re seeing opportunities that make us look forward to the future. I feel that with the right policies and regulations, the right tax codes, the right infrastructure plan, we can become a state among nations (in energy production).”
The congressman, however, lamented that “government is standing in the way” of unleashing Pennsylvania’s natural resources.
“We’re overregulating and overtaxing the industry and not paving the way for it,” Barletta said. “We have all of these resources, but we lack pipelines, and without a way of transmitting, it’s like being in college and having a keg of beer without a tap.”
A moment or so later, he corrected himself, eliciting laughter by adding, “those are the college students who are juniors or seniors – who are 21 and over.”
Tim Dugan, chief operating officer of CNX, lauded those resources as well. “With pipelines, and the potential of the Utica and Marcellus shales, Pennsylvania could be the top producer in the country.”
CNX is the oil and gas spinoff of Consol Energy.
Barletta said his priorities for energy are to help the industry and making certain there is a properly trained workforce. He said there is a “massive shortage” of oil and gas workers, pointing out a number of would-be employees are unable to pass drug tests.
“The opioid effect is 65 percent higher in the Appalachian Region than anywhere else in the country.”
Still, he is bullish about Pennsylvania energy possibilities.
“You have to seize opportunities and enable Pennsylvania to play a major role.”