Safety focus of Core Values Summit
The new speaker spoke energy Friday.
“The continued development of natural gas and clean coal is contributing to the economies of Pennsylvania families,” state Rep. Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny County, said to a small klatsch of reporters at the DoubleTree hotel on Racetrack Road in Meadow Lands.
Turzai, elected speaker of the House Wednesday, sharpened his elocutionary skills as the keynote speaker at Consol Energy Inc.’s semiannual Core Values Summit. He addressed an audience of about 200 vendors who serve Consol in the natural gas and coal industries, then met separately with the media.
Safety and compliance with safety standards was the focus of the summit, as it has been for the past four years. Consol and its vendors gather twice annually to discuss standards, procedures, precautions and incidents in their hazardous industries.
“Ninety-five percent of our conversations were about safety compliance and continuous improvement,” said Darryl Husenits, Consol’s vice president for material and supply chain management. “We get feedback from them, and they get feedback from us on how to work together.”
The subject of safety resonated Friday, nine months after an explosion at a Chevron gas well site killed a contract worker in Dunkard Township, Greene County.
Turzai, of Marshall Township, touted the benefits of the development in the Marcellus and Utica shales – without flogging that familiar whipping boy, coal.
“I think a large part of the job growth in Pennsylvania over at least the past four years has been the development of natural gas and clean coal,” Turzai said, never failing to use the modifier clean with coal.
“I talk to parents all the time who are thrilled their sons and daughters are coming back to Pennsylvania for jobs. We hope to continue to move forward in a safe, reasonable manner.”
He said more than $600 million in revenue was raised for communities and counties statewide through the impact fee enacted in 2012. One reporter asked him about the possibility of the state imposing a severance tax on drillers, opposed by outgoing Gov. Tom Corbett.
Turzai said he didn’t know whether such a tax – if enacted – would be in addition to the impact fees, or in lieu of them. “I don’t think we’ll see anything until the budget is addressed in February.”
Safety was the main topic, an issue that isn’t an issue at Rockwater Energy Solutions, said Steven Volas.
“Safety is the No. 1 core value with Rockwater,” said Volas, business development manager for the Southpointe firm. “We’re always looking to upgrade standards. We tell new hires to go home the way they came in.”
Eric Vaccarello, president of Land Clearing Specialists Inc., praised Consol for its safety initiatives and standards.
“Consol practices what it preaches,” said Vaccarello, whose company is based in North Fayette Township. “By far, they are ahead of the curve. If there is a step to take forward, they take it.”
He and Volas said their companies likewise are vigilant on this, holding daily safety meetings.
Husenits said, with Consol, safety essentially starts at home.
“We are talking not only about gas and coal safety at the workplace, but getting to and going from there. It bothers us if one person gets hurt or there is one accident.”