Learning from Pittsburgh’s Energy History from Westinghouse to Marcellus

What do you think of when you think of Pittsburgh?

Throughout its history, the Pittsburgh region has been closely identified with energy sources that have produced both industrial progress and environmental degradation.  Over past generations, energy development and use—particularly transitions involving coal and natural gas—had major impacts upon the region’s population, industries, and environment, shaping public policy and the public health.  Today, however, when people talk about energy development and Pittsburgh, they focus primarily on the rapid growth in natural gas production brought about by fracking. Between Pittsburgh’s reputation as the “Smoky City” and the current debate over the exploitation of the Marcellus Shale, an important question emerges. Does the history of energy development in the state have any implications for the present natural gas boom? I believe that there are a number of analogies between then and now that are worth exploring. The echo between past and present shows that concerns about the environmental impacts of natural gas development today could have been anticipated by looking at Pittsburgh’s history.

Does the history of energy development in the state have any implications for the present natural gas boom?

While coal has been a consistent presence in Pittsburgh’s energy history, spurring economic development and shaping and damaging the environment and the landscape, natural gas has played a more episodic role. Regional sources were discovered in the late 19^th century and numerous derricks soon dotted the Pittsburgh cityscape and surrounding environs. By the mid-1880s, one key player in this activity,  the inventor George Westinghouse, had drilled a productive well on Solitude, his Pittsburgh estate, which produced enough energy to power his own residence and those of his neighbors. Before making his name in history with the Westinghouse Electric Company (which lit the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, which became known as the blazing, bright “White City”), he had also organized the Philadelphia Company to supply gas to Pittsburgh area residences and industries—aggressively acquiring industrial and domestic customers and competing firms along the way.

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What details do this early period of Pittsburgh natural gas development and today’s Pennsylvania natural gas boom share in common? Widespread anxiety about the negative economic impact of natural gas on the coal industry, for starters.  In the 1880s,he substitution of natural gas for coal reduced coal consumption and resulted in unemployment for large numbers of miners for a decade or more.  Similarly, worries back then about community impact—particularly how “boom and bust” conditions might damage local infrastructure and affect social conditions—seem eerily familiar today. And of course, there is the common refrain of clashes over regulation. As a new energy resource in the 1880s, natural gas required lawmakers to construct a new state policy framework.   The result was passage of the Natural Gas Act in 1885, which set rules for natural gas drilling and entry into the field.  These state regulations conflicted with Pittsburgh city ordinances governing gas regulatory standards. In 1886, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court asserted supremacy of the state act, gutting critical passages in the municipal regulations.  Today the development of fracking has also resulted in new regulations that further establish state supremacy over natural gas with the passage in 2012 of Act 13. In 2014, however, the State Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of local zoning ordinances limiting fracking, reversing the precedent set nearly 130 years ago.

The most ominous refrain between the past and present in Pennsylvania’s natural gas industry, however, exists in the spaces where they literally collide.

The most ominous refrain between the past and present in Pennsylvania’s natural gas industry, however, exists in the spaces where they literally collide. During the late 19th and 20th century over 400,000 natural gas and oil wells were sunk throughout the state.  These wells caused many problems, among them pollution of rural and urban water sources and landscape destruction. Many of these wells were abandoned when they were exhausted and not properly plugged as state law required.  The location of thousands of these so-called "orphan" wells is unknown, but they present multiple hazards, from methane leaks that can cause explosions to water pollution from salt brine.  Worst of all, today’s drillers of new fracking wells (not to mention coal miners) often encounter unidentified old wells, causing problems such as methane leakage.

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Today there is extensive public and legislative discussion about the Marcellus Shale boom, its effects, and its regulation, but little attention has been paid to policy or environmental lessons that the historical record might teach us. The example of Pittsburgh past and present shows us that how we harness energy makes—and then breaks—economic, social, and environmental systems. There is no absolute fail-safe method when it comes to the exploitation of fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas.  It is hubris to believe that we can escape negative consequences, which is all the more reason to take precautions guided by warning signs from the past, as well as by current analysis.   If energy development is to continue, we need to give the highest priority to strict regulatory oversight by qualified experts and public health authorities and consultation with local communities.  Greater attention to the history of energy in Pittsburgh could help provide policymakers, regulators, and the public to anticipate potential problems as well as help Pennsylvania avoid another legacy of environmental damage from fossil fuel development.