Some legislators hopeful shale bill will be hammered out soon
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HARRISBURG -- State senators prepped a bill Wednesday so that Marcellus Shale oversight legislation could be approved quickly if negotiators hammer out a compromise within the next week.
But large question marks still loom regarding whether that measure will find its way to the governor's desk by the end of the year as Gov. Tom Corbett and lawmakers have been aiming.
Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa, whose caucus has been working with the majority Republicans since spring to craft a Marcellus Shale impact fee and regulatory measure, is not hopeful.
"Our legislative work, for all intents and purposes, is done for this year. Next week, we'll do congressional reapportionment, a few other matters and then we're likely to be done," said Mr. Costa, D-Forest Hills.
As he made that prediction, House Democrats and environmental advocates were holding a news conference elsewhere in the state Capitol, both decrying the fact that significant natural gas drilling legislation has not been approved as well as condemning the House and Senate proposals as flimsy.
"There's more ideology driving these bills than evaluation of the needs of this state," said John Quigley, who led the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources under former Gov. Ed Rendell. "Some are going overboard to genuflect to the industry."
Amid those cries of delay and inadequacy, Republican lawmakers and staffers have been holding marathon meetings with the Corbett administration in an attempt to iron out agreement between the two chambers' regulatory approaches.
The measures have detailed distinctions between them over how to update the state's environmental rules, as well as contrasting methods for implementing and distributing a drilling impact fee.
The House proposal, which mirrors much of what the governor outlined in his Marcellus Shale policy announcement, would allow for a fee on producing wells of up to $40,000 per well in the first year and decreasing annually to $10,000 in years four through 10.
The Senate has offered a fee that starts at $50,000 per well, decreasing through a period of 20 years -- twice as long as the assessment in the House bill.
Lawmakers have been stymied in part by disagreements over who should assess that levy. The House and governor prefer to let each county decide, while the Senate would have the state Public Utility Commission handle that role.
Senate President Pro Tem Joe Scarnati, who has led that chamber's efforts toward a Marcellus bill, said each side has made concessions, while also noting the large number of issues involved.
The brief Senate committee meeting Wednesday to push a bill forward showcased that problem. While there was only one vote against advancing the yet-to-be-finalized bill, most of those in favor referenced additional provisions they still hoped to see included.
"At some point we have to reconcile all those differences," Mr. Scarnati said. "Are we gonna get there next week? Difficult. Could we get there by the end of the year? That just depends on how well everybody wants to move this process along."
Some of those involved in the shale negotiations will be heading to the annual Pennsylvania Society dinner and events (including a party sponsored by the Marcellus Shale Coalition) in New York City this weekend.
After that, the Senate has three session days left on the calendar for 2011, with six for the House.
Still, publicly anyway, the GOP isn't writing shale off yet.
"There's still some issues being worked out," said House Republican spokesman Steve Miskin. "Everyone hopes to get an impact fee proposal completed."
First Published December 8, 2011 12:00 am
