Pittsburgh city council votes to ban natural-gas drilling

Energy experts have long touted natural gas as a cleaner fuel than oil. But while natural gas, as an end product, may be cleaner in many ways, its extraction still creates a great deal of environmental damage.

That's why environmentalists are starting to campaign more aggressively against the fuel — highlighting what's known as "fracking" — whereby gas engineers pump water and chemicals into the earth at a high velocity to break through underground rock. Critics charge that fracking contaminates the air, as well as drinking-water reservoirs near natural-gas wells. Natural-gas detractors are also taking aim at a 2005 energy law that has exempted the industry and fracking technology from regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Among other things, the loophole allows companies to not disclose any toxic chemicals they may be using in the fracking process.

Today, natural-gas foes scored a noteworthy win, as Pittsburgh's city council cited the risks of fracking when it voted unanimously to pass a measure that bans natural-gas drilling in the city. The vote makes Pittsburgh the first city in gas-rich Pennsylvania to ban gas drilling.

Though the industry had fought the measure by touting the jobs and wealth it can create for the area, the Pittsburgh council was unswayed.

"They're bringing jobs all right," City Council President Darlene Harris told CBS. "There's going to be a lot of jobs for funeral homes and hospitals. That's where the jobs are. Is it worth it?"

However, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, who has previously expressed an opposition to a natural-gas ban before the council's ordinance, has to sign off on the ban before it can go into effect.

Pittsburgh sits in the middle of the Marcellus Shale region, an area that has seen more than 2,000 gas wells drilled in the past three years, with thousands more planned. In a "60 Minutes" feature on gas drilling that aired over the weekend, a gas-industry executive cited the Marcellus Shale Reservoir as part of what he termed the "equivalent of two Saudi Arabias of oil in the form of natural gas in the United States."

The gas exploration in the area was the subject of a recent HBO documentary titled "Gasland." In that film, a gas company approaches Josh Harris, a filmmaker living in rural Pennsylvania, offering big money to allow drilling on his land. Harris then proceeded to film himself traveling the region to discuss with others whether he should accept the offer. On his trek, he discovered that many Americans who had entered into similar agreements had encountered a litany of horror stories, including incidents where flammable water flowed into their homes.

You can watch the "60 Minutes" report on natural gas drilling here.

(Photo: AP/David Zalubowski)