Firing of Pa. conservation panel official criticized
www.timesleader.com/news/Firing_of_Pa__conservation_panel_official_criticized_01-17-2012.html
January 17, 2012
PITTSBURGH — The longtime head of a citizens advisory committee on Pennsylvania’s parks and forests has been fired, an action that fellow members and environmentalists say could reduce public oversight over gas drilling in state forests.
Kurt Leitholf, who has been executive director of the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Citizens Advisory Council since 1996, was told last week by the Corbett administration that his position was being eliminated, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said. Leitholf told the paper that he was disappointed by the decision, which took effect Friday.
Department spokeswoman Christina Novak said officials determined that funding a full-time executive director was “not cost-effective.” She said departmental legislative liaison Joe Graci will perform Leitholf’s duties in addition to his own.
Eric Martin, one of two remaining original council members, accused the administration of trying to pre-empt public oversight of the department amid Marcellus Shale gas drilling on forest land.
“Aside from what we the council feel was an illegal firing, this is a clear message from the executive suite regarding citizen involvement and transparency,” he told the paper in an e-mail. “Funny that one of our hot topics is Marcellus Shale.”
Pennsylvania has leased one-third of its 2.1 million-acre forest system for oil and gas drilling, including more than 130,000 acres for Marcellus Shale deep wells. The department has warned that more oil and gas development would damage the ecology and forests.
“As the Corbett administration ignores public opinion and converts more and more of our public lands to gas drilling industrial zones, we need greater oversight, not less,” said Jeff Schmidt, Pennsylvania Sierra Club chapter director.
Senate GOP leader sees opportunity to resolve impact fee impasse
citizensvoice.com/news/drilling/senate-gop-leader-sees-opportunity-to-resolve-impact-fee-impasse-1.1252681#axzz1iadrIwtO
By Robert Swift (Harrisburg Bureau Chief)
Published: January 4, 2012
HARRISBURG – A top Senate Republican leader sees a window of opportunity this month to resolve outstanding differences over Marcellus Shale impact fee legislation before state budget and election issues get in the way.
Agreement on a combined impact fee and stronger environmental regulations for drilling activities is one of the unresolved issues carried over by state lawmakers and Gov. Tom Corbett from last year. Senate President Pro Tempore Joseph Scarnati, R-Jefferson County, said Tuesday he hopes final passage of impact fee legislation can be achieved before Corbett’s budget address early next month.
“People want it done,” he said. “If it isn’t done, it’s going to be an issue for 2012.”
With Pennsylvania continuing to face fiscal problems, Scarnati voiced concern that a continuing impasse over impact fees could threaten to delay passage of a state budget by the June 30 deadline as it briefly did last year.
Three-way negotiations between the Republican-controlled House and Senate and the governor have produced nearly complete agreement concerning such issues as protection of water supplies, Scarnati said. The sticking points remain the monetary size of the impact fee and whether it would be structured as a county optional fee provided for in a House-approved bill or the state-administered fee in a Senate-approved bill.
The senator voiced optimism that a fee proposal being discussed to give local municipalities some control over drilling activities yet allow for consistent application will break the impasse.
But he said the decision by five GOP senators from Southeastern Pennsylvania last month to vote for a floor amendment by Sen. John Yudichak, D-Nanticioke, for a higher $75,000 first-year impact fee shows the degree of support for using some fee revenue to meet statewide needs.
The Senate bill levies a $50,000 first-year fee; the House bill levies a $40,000 first-year fee.
The Senate will take a procedural vote to pave the way for a two-chamber conference committee when it reconvenes Jan. 17. The committee’s job is to hammer out a compromise to be presented to lawmakers on an up-or-down vote.
No decisions have been made on the Senate conferees, although Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa, D-Pittsburgh, indicated that Yudichak is the point man for his caucus on the issue.
House Speaker Sam Smith, R-Punxsutawney, said no decisions have been made on House conferees.
rswift@timesshamrock.com
Revised data good case for severance tax
republicanherald.com/opinion/revised-data-good-case-for-severance-tax-1.1242950
Published: December 12, 2011
In its diligent effort to prevent the natural gas industry from paying a fair tax on the wealth it extracts from Pennsylvania, the Corbett administration often has overstated the positive impact of the industry.
State agencies have overstated job creation and nonseverance tax revenue attributable to the industry as Gov. Tom Corbett unconvincingly has argued against a severance tax.
At one point, the Department of Revenue attributed to the industry millions of dollars in tax payments collected from individual taxpayers who work in drilling and related fields.
Now, the Department of Revenue has acknowledged that it overestimated, by more than 100 percent, the amount of income tax revenue collected from Pennsylvania property owners who receive royalty payments on gas leases.
The Department recently reported that it had received $46.2 million in such payments, 122 percent less than the $102.7 million it had projected.
That, of course, is $46.2 million to the good. But it also illustrates that the administration is willing to accept whatever Marcellus activity happens to generate, rather than ensuring that gas wealth extraction fairly contributes to the government.
Competing bills in the Legislature establish local impact fees that could be implemented by counties that host gas drilling. But the aggregate revenue to be generated by those fees would be far less than amounts generated through severance taxes on the books in every other gas-drilling state. That is all the more true since the gas industry here also gets a pass on local property taxes that most other states assess on the value of properties that produce gas.
There is no doubt that the gas industry has had a positive economic impact on Pennsylvania. The industry and its impact also are likely to grow.
That is for the most fundamental reason of all. It’s not because of the Corbett administration allowing the industry to export as profit as much of the wealth that it possibly can. It’s because the gas is here.
Lawmakers should stop dithering and establish a fair severance tax that puts state revenue on par with that of other states that host the industry.
Pa. DEP head lobbies for gas drilling
www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20111123%2FNEWS%2F111230310%2F-1%2FNews
By Christina Tatu
Pocono Record Writer
November 23, 2011
Natural gas drilling would provide jobs, money and, contrary to naysayers, does not harm the environment, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Michael Krancer said at East Stroudsburg University Tuesday.
Krancer’s visit was just days after the Delaware River Basin Commission postponed a vote to allowing drilling in the Delaware River watershed.
Krancer had few comments on the delayed vote, but said it was “politically motivated” and that opponents are basing their opinions on misguided ideology, instead of facts.
The commission, which has board members representing the governors of Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania and the White House, abruptly postponed the vote last week after Delaware Gov. Jack Markell said he would vote against the rules, making the outcome uncertain.
Pennsylvania’s Gov. Tom Corbett is a supporter of natural gas drilling and was expected to vote in favor of the regulations.
Krancer, who was at ESU for a forum on sustainability, said Pennsylvanians are sitting on a huge natural resource, one so abundant, it would give the state a powerful edge in the energy market. Pennsylvania could sell energy to its large urban neighbors, like Boston and New York City, he said.
“If we are able to gather this resource and use it, we’ll clean the air, we’ll be more healthy and economically healthy,” he said.
Opponents say the method of extracting the gas, known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, endangers drinking water. The method involves pumping large amounts of water and chemicals thousands of feet underground to break up the Marcellus shale and release the natural gas.
Krancer dismissed those concerns Tuesday.
“The chemicals make up half a percent of what’s in fracking material, and many of those chemicals found in the water are food grade,” he said.
He also said it’s untrue the chemicals from fracking could end up in drinking water since they are pumped so far underground.
In Monroe County, there aren’t any private properties within the Delaware River basin that are large enough to allow for fracking, said DEP spokeswoman Colleen Connolly. However, property owners could band together if they were interested in permitting drilling on their land. There are properties in Pike County that are large enough to allow drilling, she said.
Corbett unveils shale proposal
standardspeaker.com/news/corbett-unveils-shale-proposal-1.1212610#axzz1ZowPSaWj
By ROBERT SWIFT (Harrisburg Bureau Chief)
Published: October 4, 2011
HARRISBURG – Gov. Tom Corbett threw a curveball into the Marcellus Shale impact fee debate Monday by proposing that individual counties take the responsibility for adopting an impact fee.
The governor suggested a two-step process in which the state would approve enabling legislation setting the fee amount and uses for fee revenue. Then counties with operating wells would have the choice of adopting or not adopting the per-well fee.
Corbett’s proposal differs from other major impact fee bills before the Legislature that call for state collection of impact fee revenue and disbursement of revenue to eligible counties. He also endorsed recommendations made by his Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission to keep wells at a greater distance from water sources, increase well bonding requirements for drillers and double penalties for violations. Offered one month before the Nov. 8 general election, the governor’s emphasis on county adoption of an impact fee could become an issue in county commissioner races.
Corbett proposed that each Marcellus well pay an impact fee of $40,000 the first year of operation, $30,000 the second year; $20,000 the third year and $10,000 in the fourth through sixth years in counties that adopt an impact fee.
Under the proposal, a county could provide a fee credit up to 30 percent if a driller invests in natural gas fueling stations or public transit.
Corbett outlined a list of mainly local uses for fee revenue with a smaller 25 percent share going to several state agencies that respond to drilling-related issues. Legal uses for revenue would range from road and bridge repairs, human services and courts and records management and geographic information systems.
“Whatever the fee brings in, it’s going to the places that are feeling the impact,” Corbett said.
The governor predicted that fee revenue from his proposal could generate $120 million in the first year and reach nearly $200 million in six years. This is an amount below the $200 million first-year revenue yield that Senate President Pro Tempore Joseph Scarnati, R-25, Jefferson County, called for last week.
“I think it would be very difficult to get a single Democrat in support of a county impact fee,” said Sen. John Yudichak, D-14, Nanticoke, who has offered his own impact fee bill. “All the governor’s proposal is doing is authorizing counties.”
Yudichak’s proposal would set a $17,000 base impact fee per Marcellus well and splits revenue between local communities and state environmental programs such as Growing Greener.
“We’re clearly open to the governor’s proposal,” said House Majority Leader Mike Turzai, R-28, Pittsburgh, emphasizing that nothing is set on the county fee adoption provision.
There are pros and cons to requiring that counties adopt a fee, said Douglas Hill, executive director of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania. “It (revenue) comes straight to us, and we don’t have to wait,” he added. “It does raise some risk of a competition between the counties (with or without impact fees).”
The governor’s plan doesn’t account for the statewide impacts of natural gas drilling, said Bill Patton, spokesman for House Minority Leader Frank Dermody, D-33, Pittsburgh.
rswift@timesshamrock.com
Air, rail needs emphasized for Marcellus Shale region
http://republicanherald.com/news/air-rail-needs-emphasized-for-marcellus-shale-region-1.1184992
BY ROBERT SWIFT (HARRISBURG BUREAU CHIEF rswift@timesshamrock.com)
Published: August 6, 2011
HARRISBURG – Freight railroad lines and airports in the Marcellus Shale drilling regions would be targeted for improvements under recommendations made by two gubernatorial commissions.
The Governor’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission and Transportation Funding Advisory Commission both addressed the issue in reports released within the past two weeks.
Commission members suggested that improving both types of transportation will help the long-term development of deep gas reserves and reduce highway congestion from truck traffic associated with drilling operations. One recommendation would earmark revenue from an existing state surcharge on tickets issued for speeding and other moving vehicle violations to a new fund to pay for rail, airport and port infrastructure projects statewide.
The various recommendations are now being studied by Gov. Tom Corbett and lawmakers.
The Marcellus commission recommends giving priority to an evaluation of rail freight systems in the Marcellus regions in order to relieve the burden on roads and bridges from transporting sand, water and pipe to serve gas well operations. Another suggestion is for the state to partner with local rail authorities to seek federal rail freight dollars for this effort.
The Marcellus commission also recommends the state Transportation Department’s Aviation Bureau undertake a detailed assessment of air service needs at airports in the region in order to capitalize on economic opportunities from gas drilling.
The transportation commission focused more on finding new revenue sources for the state’s transportation system. The commission’s report noted short-line railroads in the northern tier counties need money to fix and maintain track, bridges and switches in order to support drilling operations. If more drilling materials can be shipped by rail, it will reduce truck traffic, the report states.
Pennsylvania airports get revenue from a tax on jet fuel, but revenue only covers a quarter of the improvements needed, the report states.
To address these needs, the commission recommends creating an “Intermodal Transportation Fund” for rail freight, aviation, passenger rail and ports across the state. Revenue from an existing surcharge on tickets for moving vehicle violations that currently goes to the all-purpose state General Fund could be diverted to the new intermodal fund, the commission said.
If that happens, its report projects $7 million in new revenue for aviation in fiscal 2012-13 going up to $11 million in five years and $9 million for rail freight in fiscal 2012-13 going up to $17 million in five years. The entire fund would have $54 million in 2012-13.
Before this, lawmakers have sought to provide potential funding for rail freight projects in the Marcellus region in a piecemeal fashion by adding authorizations to capital budget bills. The state pays for capital projects through the sale of bonds to investors and the governor decides which projects get the green light. It’s a tough competition and projects can remain on lists for years.
DEP boss: We won’t leave scars
http://standardspeaker.com/news/dep-boss-we-won-t-leave-scars-1.1185041#axzz1UFlEFGtR
By KENT JACKSON (Staff Writer)
Published: August 6, 2011
Speakers at a conference in Hazleton about pollution from abandoned coal mines hope that environmental problems won’t result from Pennsylvania’s latest energy boom – drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale formation.
Michael Krancer, the secretary of Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection, who opened the conference on Friday at Best Western Genetti Inn and Suites, said he will police gas drilling so companies don’t pollute air and water.
“We’re very sensitive to leaving a legacy,” Krancer said, while adding that public sensibilities are different now than a century ago when coal mining left its mark.
“People today won’t tolerate scars on the land” or pollution in the air, he said.
An attorney and former judge on the state Environmental Hearing Board, Krancer said he encourages companies to be good neighbors and said those that cheat on environmental rules ruin the free market and the natural world.
“That is my core belief,” he said.
When asked, however, about taxing gas companies today to remediate the problems created by coal companies of yesteryear, Krancer said that won’t happen.
“Given my boss’ view of taxes,” he said of Gov. Tom Corbett’s stance against taxing gas companies, “it’s a non-starter.”
Krancer further said the gas deposits are personal property and compared a plan to tax them to borrowing the car of the man who raised the question for government use. He did say the legislators show strong support for charging companies fees to offset the impact on communities where drilling occurs.
Krancer approves using water polluted by draining through mines to drill for gas.
“That’s a no-brainer” was his reaction when he first heard of the concept, and he said he hasn’t changed his views. Legal questions, however, have arisen about whether gas companies inherit responsibility for treating water under the doctrine of “You use it, you own it.”
Sandra McSurdy, in one of 15 seminars that followed Krancer’s address, talked about a study of using acid mine drainage in gas drilling that she manages for the U.S. Department of Energy.
The plan might work better in the southwestern part of the state where mine pools overlap gas wells better than they do in the northeast.
Using mine water, she said, reduces the water that drillers will draw from rivers, streams and public drinking supplies. It also could cut down the traffic from trucks carrying water to mines or hauling contaminated water that flowed back from gas wells to Ohio for disposal in deep wells there.
Some gas drillers seeking to avoid legal responsibility for treating mine water refuse to use it.
For drillers that would use mine water, meanwhile, McSurdy described some of the interactions with chemicals in water that flows back from the gas wells.
Sulfate in mine water, for example, is excellent at removing barium and iron, but not strontium, from flowback water, McSurdy said. Adding sodium bicarbonate, meanwhile, helps take out strontium, she said.
Radisav Vidic at the University of Pittsburgh is leading the research and looking at how fast the chemical reactions occur between mine and drilling waters, McSurdy said.
Some samples of the flowback water contain radioactivity from radon below ground, which can be removed by sulfate. The resulting solid would need to be disposed as low-level nuclear waste, McSurdy said.
Mine water also has been used to wash coal, provide a source of steam in coal-burning plants and has been suggested as a water source for the coal-to-diesel plant that Jack Rich of Reading Anthracite wants to build in Schuylkill County, Charles Cravotta III, a hydrogeologist for the U.S. Geological Survey, said.
Cravotta and colleagues did a study that estimated 60 billion to 220 billion gallons might be pooled in mines in the Western Middle Anthracite Fields, which are primarily in the watersheds of the Mahanoy and Shamokin creeks.
Thomas Clark of the Susquehanna River Basin Commission looked at the top 20 sites in the anthracite region, including the Jeddo Tunnel, that send acid mine drainage into the river. Prefacing his remarks by saying he is not an engineer, Clark said 10 treatment plants might be built to handle the flow from 16 of the top sources, plus 20 other discharge points.
In his plan, the Nescopeck Creek, which is fed by the Jeddo Mine Tunnel and accounts for 56 percent of aluminum entering the Susquehanna in the region, would get a separate treatment plant. Other plants would treat water from two or more sites.
Together, the plants would remove 68 percent of iron, 73 percent of manganese, 79 percent of aluminum and 60 percent of acidity flowing into the Susquehanna from the region.
Mine engineer Michael Korb of Hazleton, after reporting on a never-realized plan from the 1950s to send mine drainage from Pennsylvania to Maryland through a 137-mile tunnel, suggested diverting water from mines so it doesn’t become polluted rather than building treatment plants. Treatment plants require constant maintenance and passive plants have been disabled by storms, he said.
Even diversion systems, such as ditches and flumes, require maintenance, said Korb, who pointed out that most of the systems installed in the 1950s in lieu of the giant tunnel stopped being effective after the coal companies went out of business and stopped the upkeep.
kjackson@standardspeaker.com
Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission Issues Final Report
http://www.responsibledrillingalliance.org/newsletter/07272011.html
Back in March, Governor Corbett formed the 30-member Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission (MSAC), giving those appointed 120 days to develop recommendations on all aspects of natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. This past Friday, the commission released it recommendations. The full 137-page report is available on the RDA web site: http://www.responsibledrillingalliance.org/newsletter/MSAC_Report_July_2011.pdf
Some of the commission’s recommendations include:
Economic & Workforce Development
- The Commonwealth should identify strategic locations to construct regional business parks.
- The state should create financial incentives for the conversion of mass transit and school bus fleets to natural gas, as well as for the manufacture of engines and other component parts, utilizing available funding sources.
- The Department of Community and Economic Development should work closely with its regional economic development partners and gas producers to grow the number of existing manufacturing firms participating in the shale gas industry.
Permitting and Infrastructure
- Pennsylvania should designate a state agency to create a “one-stop” permitting process.
- State agencies should offer accelerated permit reviews within guaranteed time frames.
- If the air contamination sources are covered by an exemption on the Air Quality Permit Exemption List, a Plan Approval and/or Operating Permit will not be required.
- The Commonwealth should expand its rail freight facilities and capabilities to handle supplies and commodities associated with natural gas development.
Public Health, Safety & Environmental Protection
- Triple well setback distance from streams, ponds, and other bodies of water from 100 to 300 feet.
- Increase setback distance from private water wells from 200 to 500 feet and to 1,000 feet for public water systems.
- Expand operator’s presumed liability for impairing water quality from 1,000 ft to 2,500 feet from a well, and extend the duration of presumed liability from 6 months to 12 months.
Local Impacts and Emergency Response
- Oil and gas well pads and related facilities should be assigned a 9-1-1 address for emergency response purposes, and oil and gas operators should be required to provide GPS coordinates for access roads and well pad sites.
- Recommend enactment or authorization to impose a fee to mitigate to uncompensated
- impacts caused to communities by natural gas development.
Commenting on the Commission’s report, Representative Camille “Bud” George stated, “What we’ve seen over the last several months is an industry-dominated commission offer few meaningful remedies for a process that has already polluted people’s water. It’s unfathomable and unconscionable to put people’s safety at risk as this industrial tide sweeps the Commonwealth.” Rep. George claims it is irresponsible to empower a profit-driven industry to regulate itself when Pennsylvania consumers will be paying for environmental remediation when accidents occur. George cautioned that some commission recommendations may appear to be environmentally friendly, but are actually disguised gifts to the gas industry.
Rep. George has introduced a bill that he believes would help to fill some of the most erroneous gaps in the commissions report. Several of the protection provisions in the ProtectPA bill mirror those made by Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Mike Krancer in his May 27th letter to Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley, who chaired the MSAC.
Known as ProtectPA, the bill calls for:
- Increasing the distance that wells may be placed from public drinking water sources
- Disclosure of the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing
- Updated bonding and road-repair requirements
- Extension of a well operator’s presumed liability in cases of well pollution
- “Cradle-to-grave” tracking of Marcellus waste water
- Expanding pre-drilling survey rights for landowners
- Prohibiting open-pit frac water storage in flood plains
- A tax of 30 cents per 1,000 cubic feet of gas severed, with an adjustment mechanism if the price of gas changes.
- Severance tax revenue would go directly to the entities and projects most harmed by gas drilling, including local governments, infrastructure repair, and environmental programs
- No unrestricted revenue directed to the PA General Fund.
Law Suit Filed Due to Air Quality Concerns
One topic that the Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission all but overlooked in their report was air quality. No surprise, as the commission’s recommendation under “Economic and Workforce Development” includes courting some of the most notorious air-polluting industries to locate in Pennsylvania, where they will help to increase demand for natural gas. These include plastics and chemical manufacturing plants.
On Thursday of last week, one day before the final MSAC report was issued, Citizens for Pennsylvania‟s Future (PennFuture) filed a lawsuit against Ultra Resources, Inc., for air pollution at its Marcellus Shale drilling sites. PennFuture also filed a formal request with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for all records of air pollution at drilling sites throughout the Commonwealth.
“Ultra’s drilling operations in Tioga and Potter counties are emitting dangerous and illegal air pollution and operating without the required permits,” said Jan Jarrett, president and CEO of PennFuture. “Unless gas drillers operating in Pennsylvania control the air pollution from their operations, air quality will deteriorate, putting public health at risk…The company is emitting large amounts of nitrogen oxides (NOx) into the air, creating serious health risks for anyone living downwind from the operations. According to the United States EPA, even short-term NOx exposures, ranging from 30 minutes to 24 hours, cause adverse respiratory effects including airway inflammation in healthy people and increased respiratory symptoms in people with asthma. And this air pollution also leads to more fine particle pollution, which can cause heart attacks and other deadly illnesses. But this appears to be business as usual for many drillers,” continued Jarrett.
“A study out of Fort Worth (TX) recently showed that the NOx pollution just from the average compressor engine there is about 60 tons per year. And with drilling going like gangbusters here in Pennsylvania, that same kind of pollution from all the operations would create serious public health problems, and destroy any ability of Pennsylvania to meet air quality standards. We’ve also seen the formerly pristine air in Wyoming now more dangerous than that in Los Angeles, thanks to massive drilling. We need to stop this problem here and now. “ claimed Jarrett.
“We are also asking DEP to open the books on its assessment of air pollution at other drilling operations throughout the Commonwealth,” said Jarrett. “We cannot and will not allow the drillers to operate without meeting our clean air rules.”
Copies of the PennFuture court filing and Right to Know request may be downloaded at www.pennfuture.org.
Fee proposed but tax ruled out on hydraulic fracturing
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/22/natgas-fracking-pennsylvania-idUSN1E76L19Y20110722
Jul 22, 2011 2:38pm EDT
By Edith Honan
- Fee proposed but tax ruled out on hydraulic fracturing
- No specific amount for free recommended
- Commission aims to create road map for regulation
NEW YORK, July 22 (Reuters) – Pennsylvania, home to the nation’s richest natural gas deposit, released recommendations on Friday that included requiring drillers to pay an impact fee but ruled out a new state tax on extracting gas.
The long-awaited report from the governor’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission’s aims to provide a road map for the state legislature to regulate the booming shale gas industry, balancing the need to generate revenue while also promoting more drilling.
The commission recommended charging an impact fee for costs incurred by municipalities as a result of drilling, such as for the upkeep of roads, but declined to propose a specific amount, saying that decision will be left up to the Republican governor and the Republican-controlled state legislature.
But the fees almost certainly would amount to less than $300 million that the previous, Democratic governor had hoped to raise through a wellhead tax that was rejected by Republicans in the legislature.
The commission also recommended doubling penalties for civil violations — which in the more serious instances could involve leaks and spill — from $25,000 to $50,000 and double daily penalties from $1,000 to $2,000.
Pennsylvania sits above the Marcellus shale formation, which could meet U.S. gas demand for decades, and has become the flash point for a U.S. debate on the extraction method hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
Fracking involves blasting shale rock with chemical-laced water and sand to release trapped gas. Some environmental and public health activists say it taints drinking water supplies.
The 30-member commission was created by Governor Tom Corbett, who took office in January with a strong anti-tax stance and described the gas industry as an economic engine for the cash-strapped state.
Corbett, who according to the website Marcellus Money has received $1.6 million in industry campaign contributions, is opposed to a severance or wellhead tax on gas drilling. Pennsylvania is the only gas-producing state without such a tax.
Proponents of those taxes say they would raise needed revenue and help pay for the environmental costs of drilling.
The recommendations include increasing the distance between gas well sites and drinking water systems and training more Pennsylvania residents to work in the industry.
“Today, Pennsylvania is taking an important first step toward creating tens of thousands of jobs and leading the nation toward energy independence and doing so in an environmentally responsible way,” said Lieutenant Governor Jim Cawley, who led the commission.
A study by current and former Pennsylvania State University researchers — released this week funded by the natural gas drilling industry — said the state’s economy will get a $12.8 billion boost from drilling this year, more than double the amount from 2009, while reaping nearly 140,000 jobs.
Pennsylvania, until recently a net importer of natural gas, could surpass Texas as the top exporting state within the next decade, the report said.
A well belonging to one of the state’s largest drillers, Chesapeake Energy (CHK.N) blew out in the town of LeRoy in April, spilling thousands of gallons of toxic drilling fluid and causing anxiety among local residents.
Shale commission faces votes on future of drilling
http://citizensvoice.com/news/shale-commission-faces-votes-on-future-of-drilling-1.1173999#axzz1S4wWwA8r
By Robert Swift (Harrisburg Bureau Chief)
Published: July 12, 2011
HARRISBURG – The governor’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission starts its endgame Friday with members voting in public on what recommendations to put in a comprehensive report guiding the future of natural gas development in Pennsylvania.
This will be the last working meeting of the commission before the July 22 deadline to hand a report to Gov. Tom Corbett.
Heading the agenda will be a series of votes on proposals offered by four working groups established when the commission began its work in March.
The proposals that garner a majority vote from the members will be included in the report, said Chad Saylor, spokesman for Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley, the commission chairman. The bulk of the proposals deal with public health and safety and environmental protection issues, he added.
The commission members are reviewing the working group proposals, therefore allowing for last-minute discussions before the meeting agenda is set, Saylor said.
One of the most closely watched issues facing the commission is levying an impact fee on drillers to offset the cost of drilling operations for municipalities, and additionally address environmental issues related to drilling.
Saylor was unable to say whether an impact fee recommendation will be voted on Friday, but he said a lot of attention was focused on impact fees in the working group that dealt with local impact and emergency preparedness issues relating to drilling.
House and Senate Republican leaders put off plans to vote on impact fee legislation at the close of the spring legislative session after Corbett said he would veto any bill with those provisions that reached his desk in advance of the commission’s report. Corbett has suggested he wants to see what the commission recommends concerning an impact fee, but he doesn’t think impact fee revenue should go to the all-purpose state General Fund.
Cawley has repeatedly said the issue of a state severance tax on natural gas production is off the commission’s agenda given Corbett’s strong opposition to that idea.
Likely to be in the mix for consideration are recommendations offered by the Department of Environmental Protection and Health Department.
DEP has outlined a major overhaul of the state Oil and Gas Act with stronger buffer zones to keep natural gas drilling away from water sources, tougher penalties and bond requirements and a “cradle-to-grave” manifest system to track wastewater from hydraulic fracturing. For example, DEP recommends restricting well drilling within 1,000 feet of a public water supply and doubling the distance from 250 feet to 500 feet to separate a gas well from a private well.
The Health Department wants to create a registry to monitor and study data on the health conditions of individuals who live near drilling sites.
“In order to refute or verify claims that public health is being impacted by drilling in the Marcellus Shale, there must be a comprehensive and scientific approach to evaluating over time health conditions of individuals who live in close proximity to a drilling site or are occupationally exposed,” said Health Secretary Eli Avila in a presentation to the commission last month.
Zoning is another issue on the commission’s radar screen.
In a May presentation, the industry-oriented Marcellus Shale Coalition called attention to a “patchwork” of ordinances dealing with such subjects as road use and well site setbacks. The Coalition called for consistency in zoning powers and not singling out activities by the gas industry.
rswift@timesshamrock.com