Senate panel OKs Marcellus legislation, minus the impact fee
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HARRISBURG -- Emphasizing that it is not the final version of the proposed Marcellus Shale legislation, a state Senate committee this afternoon approved changes to their lingering drilling impact fee bill.
The 61-page amendment adds a slew of provisions to beef up the state's environmental regulations, and was passed by the Senate panel unanimously.
But the big surprise to those who have been referring to that bill for months as an impact fee measure was the removal, for now, of the fee itself.
A bipartisan group of senators has been working on compromise language for a drilling impact fee, tougher environmental rules and incentives for natural gas use.
Today's changes are the first step toward approving a bill in the Senate next week, said Senate President Pro Tem Joe Scarnati, who introduced the impact fee measure in April.
Negotiations over how to assess that much-debated levy on gas drillers will continue this week, so that details of an impact fee can be added back into the measure on Monday before it is considered on the Senate floor.
"These are very difficult issues that we're trying to work through, and the fee issue in itself is obviously maybe the most decisive as far as the level of the fee, the type of fee and the distribution," Mr. Scarnati said after the panel meeting.
"In order to give everybody an opportunity to have a fair debate on that, we chose to take it out," he said.
He added that those various fee plans "have more in common than they do apart," and voiced optimism that compromise can be found in the coming days.
Democratic senators were supportive in their comments, saying that they expect those continued talks to lead to a vote on a bill addressing regulatory changes and a fee next week.
While the bill temporarily is missing a key component that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and Gov. Tom Corbett have advocated, the dozens of changes expected to be added would constitute the most sweeping update to date of the state's Oil and Gas Act.
First Published October 26, 2011 1:49 pm
