Rep. Mike Hanna (D-Clinton), Majority Chair of the House Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee, and Rep. Rick Mirabito (D-Lycoming) this week co-hosted a public hearing on two bills the Committee is considering that would encourage Pennsylvania landowners to lease their land for natural gas and wind energy production or exploration.

 

"Wind energy and exploration of the Marcellus Shale are essential to promoting clean and stable energy production in the Commonwealth," said Rep. Hanna.

 

Rep. Hanna said the Committee heard testimony from the sponsors of two proposals that would limit the imposition of roll-back taxes and preserve preferential real estate assessment for land enrolled in the Clean and Green program.

 

"The Marcellus Shale natural gas formation is a great resource of energy and could be a major benefit to rural communities," Rep. Mirabito said. "It makes sense that the communities that must endure the noise, dirt and road damage drilling causes should also receive some financial compensation."

 

House Bill 984, sponsored by Rep. Dave Kessler (D-Berks), would amend the Pennsylvania Farmland and Forest Land Assessment Act, or Clean and Green, to limit the imposition of roll-back taxes when a landowner leases land enrolled in the program for a wind power generation system. The preferential assessment would continue to apply to land that is not leased provided leased tracts remain accessible and are not sold or subdivided.

 

House Bill 1394, sponsored by Rep. Tom Houghton (D-Chester), would clarify the status of land leased for exploration of oil and gas, coal bed methane extraction and commercial wind energy production. Under the bill, roll-back taxes would be imposed on land subject to the actual activity, not the entire tract of land. In addition, roll-back taxes could not be imposed retroactively.

 

In order to be eligible for the preferential assessment, both bills would require the land be enrolled in the Department of Agriculture's Clean and Green program. Clean and Green provides a real estate tax benefit to landowners who maintain land solely for agricultural use, agricultural reserve, or forest reserve use.

 

A recent study projected that 10 percent of the natural gas found in Pennsylvania's share of the Marcellus Shale formation is recoverable, representing more than twice the amount consumed annually in the United States.

 

Rep. Hanna has maintained he wants the rights of landowners and rural communities to be protected as gas companies seek public and private leases to drill the gas-rich sedimentary rock.