Gas Drilling Bill Passes in Pennsylvania
The Reading Eagle article is the first of the articles to describe the reality of the gas drilling bill in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is the largest gas producing state that maintains de minimis taxation on the product being removed. The bill will begin charging gas producers to help rebuild infrastructure in the state. However, whether the tax rate is too low will be an issue. Eminent domain will be delegated for this otherwise private use.
HARRISBURG - Gov. Tom Corbett is expected to sign a sweeping bill that could force Pennsylvania's booming natural gas industry to help pay for a wide range of state and local government programs, toughen safety standards and limit the ability of local officials to keep drilling out of their towns.
Because Corbett opposes the kind of tax on the industry that many other states impose, Republican legislative leaders instead pursued an "impact fee" that he views as being fundamentally different than a tax. Even so, several conservative groups, along with Democrats, insisted that the fee is really a tax.
The fee would rise and fall with the price of natural gas and inflation and would be roughly equivalent to a 3 percent tax rate, Republicans said. Democrats countered that it would reflect a 1 percent tax rate. Either way, it would net less money than many other natural-gas producing states."Either you are for a commonsense, balanced approach to the development of the natural gas discovery, or you are just always (saying) 'no,'" House Majority Leader Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, said during floor debate. "You don't get to have it both ways."
Money from the fee would aid state agencies tasked with regulating the industry, communities that are home to the drilling and statewide environmental improvement programs.
Dollars also would flow to improve bridges and water and sewer plants, purchase natural gas-powered fleet vehicles, build affordable housing and help the development of a massive petrochemical refinery in southwestern Pennsylvania and the reuse of three Philadelphia-area oil refineries that are shutting down.Corbett and the industry had sought provisions to prevent the ability of municipalities to regulate any drilling activity, but such a provision couldn't pass either chamber. Instead, the bill would require municipalities to allow drilling in all zones, including residential, and require them to follow state spacing requirements. But it also would allow them to apply zoning standards on things like lighting, noise and structures that are used for other industrial activities.
