04/22/24 - 117 New Stories - REAL Environmental & Conservation Leadership In PA: http://tinyurl.com/9bh4zbtr
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Governor's Marcellus Commission Recommends Impact Fee, Forced Pooling
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After a day-long meeting punctuated by lots of discussion, the Governor's Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission finished work on about 100 recommendations which included urging the adoption of an impact fee, a general statement on forced pooling of natural gas properties and a bigger role for county conservation districts in regulating drilling operations for erosion and sedimentation problems. The final report was passed unanimously by the Commission, but some Commission members noted not all the recommendations were supported by each member.
Members of the Commission each had the recommendations before them, but the text of the proposals were not available to the public online before the meeting or to the audience attending as handouts. All that's known about the recommendations was gleaned from verbal comments made at the meeting.
Each of the four work groups: Environmental Protection and Public Health, Local Impacts and Emergency Response, Economic and Workforce Development and Infrastructure reported generally on agreed-to recommendations. The recommendations were then voted on in groups or individual recommendations were called out by number and discussed or changed.
New recommendations, in particular by environmental groups, were suggested, discussed and voted on, but again the text of the changes were not available.
The general topics covered by each work group included:
Impact Fee/Local Control: Amendments were offered to the recommendations to expand the uses of the fee to include community-based projects to protect and restore land, wildlife and water resources and improve outdoor recreation opportunities and was approved. A specific amendment to fund the Growing Greener Program was defeated.
There was some discussion of a portion of the impact fee recommendation dealing with local ordinances. but it was difficult to follow since no one but the Commission members had the actual language. The local ordinance language sounded very general and was tweaked during the discussion.
Pooling: Very general language related to the concept of pooling was included in the recommendations, but discussed at length by the Commission members. Several environmental group representatives expressed concern about the lack of detail in the recommendation and voted against the proposal.
Conservation Districts: An amendment offered by environmental groups was adopted to allow county conservation districts to inspect drilling sites for erosion and sedimentation control violations if they so choose. Current policy prohibits conservation district inspections.
State Forest Land Leasing: An amendment by environmental groups on banning the leasing of more State Forest land for Marcellus Shale drilling was defeated. An amendment was added saying future leasing should be limited to agreements which result in no or minimal surface impact and prohibits disturbance in high value conservation areas.
A motion by Lt. Gov. Cawley, who Chaired the Commission,to make all the initial recommendations made to the Commission public was passed by the full Commission. A copy of the complete set of recommendations and an additional paper on Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania will be reviewed by the Governor and released on July 22. In a follow-up press conference, Lt. Gov. Cawley made clear the recommendations made in the report are those of the Commission and the Gov. Corbett makes the decision on which of those will proceed forward.
NewsClips: Corbett Drilling Panel Recommends Fee On Industry Corbett Outlines Fall Agenda Marcellus Shale Panel Winding Up |
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7/18/2011 |
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