Marcellus advisory committee supports impact fees
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HARRISBURG -- Gov. Tom Corbett's Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission endorsed a long list of recommendations Friday on how to deal with the burgeoning drilling industry, including imposing a local impact fee, not a tax, on the extraction of natural gas.
The 30-member panel also tacitly threw its weight behind the controversial practice of pooling, which would effectively allow a drilling company to force a holdout landowner to lease their below-ground gas rights under certain circumstances.
The commission, dominated by industry officials and members of the Corbett administration, did not make the recommendations public Friday. It will do so at the end of next week in its report to Mr. Corbett. But the panel aired most of its 96 recommendations during its seven-hour meeting.
After that report hits his desk, Mr. Corbett will decide which of the suggestions he will push to see implemented, through regulatory changes and legislation. But the report will undoubtedly provide the blueprint for policy emanating from Harrisburg on what has arguably become one of the most hotly debated issues in the Capitol.
"We've covered a lot of ground," said Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley, the Republican who headed the commission. "One of the most significant challenges has been separating fact from fiction. The governor wants recommendations based on science, not on emotion or based on profits."
The committee studied a wide range of areas related to drilling, looking at its impact on the environment, public health and safety, economic development and emergency response.
It did so while keeping a keen eye on how to encourage drillers to remain and grow in Pennsylvania -- which drew criticism from some that the commission's work was slanted to benefit the industry, which has donated generously to the campaigns of Corbett and many legislators.
Still, the panel addressed the key question of a drilling fee, though their response leaves much of the work for the General Assembly this fall.
The governor, who during his campaign signed a no-tax pledge, has said he does not support a tax on the industry. He has indicated, however, that he would consider a local impact fee as long as the money raised from it was directed to communities where drilling occurs.
Mr. Corbett had barred the commission from considering a tax, leading critics to assert that its members were simply handing the governor a figurative fig leaf as he grapples with how to answer the fee question.
First Published July 16, 2011 12:00 am
