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$60 Million Expected From Leasing State Forest Land For Drilling, No Severance Tax
The General Assembly and Gov. Rendell gave final approval to a Fiscal Code bill-- House Bill 1614 (Belfanti-D-Northumberland)-- which includes a planto lease State Forest land for natural gas drilling they hope will generate $60 million in FY 2009-10. The Governor signed the bill into law.

The bill provides no acreage limits or caps, no minimum bids/royalties on leasing, but lets the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to control the leasing process.

The bill requires a the transfer of $60 million in FY 2009-10 from the Oil and Gas Fund to the General Fund. There is specific language requiring the General Assembly to appropriate moneys to DCNR from the Oil and Gas Fund and caps the amount of money that could be appropriated for the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources at $50 million in any one year.

The language in the bill also includes a provision which says, " In makinq appropriations (from the Oil and Gas Fund), the General Assembly shall consider the adoption of an allocation to municipalities impacted by a Marcellus well."

A previous House-passed version of the State Forest leasing in House Bill 1407 (DeLuca-D-Allegheny)caps the amount of acres the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources could lease at 30,000 for each of the next two years, sets a minimum bid of $3,000 per acre (rather than $2,500 in the Senate-passed version) and a minimum 18 percent (rather than 16 percent) royalty.

Moneys from the leasing would still go into the Oil and Gas Fund administered by DCNR, but $60 million would be transferred out of the Fund in FY 2009-10 to help balance the budget. No transfers were included for FY 2010-11, but the budget balance sheet includes a $180 million transfer to the General Fund for FY 2010-11.

NewsClip
:Top Rendell Aide Quits To Join Natural Gas Driller
Column: Hard To Extract Consensus On Natural Gas Drilling

10/12/2009

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