On behalf of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC), I am urging your support of House Bill 1489 (George-D-Clearfield) as amended (P.N. 2241), which establishes a severance tax on natural gas extraction and returns a portion of the revenue to support critical environmental programs, some which will run out of funding next year. PEC is part of a broad coalition of environmental, sportsmen, conservation, and local government interests supporting the bill.

Given extraordinary budget circumstances, coupled with unprecedented reductions in environmental and conservation program funding, we believe a severance tax makes sense for Pennsylvania to help fund associated state programs. In particular, the $625 million Growing Greener II bond program which supports mine reclamation, watershed restoration, farmland preservation, plugging abandoned oil and gas wells, brownfield revitalization and recreation improvements will run out of money next year with no plan for continuing the program.

According to a report recently published by the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, Pennsylvania is the only major fossil fuel-producing state that does not levy a mineral resource extraction tax. The study also found Marcellus Shale producers, who are accustomed to paying such severance taxes in other states, do not pay Pennsylvania's Corporate Net Income Tax like other businesses because of the way they are incorporated.

Further, a recent bipartisan poll found 87 percent of the public supported using revenues from the enactment of a severance tax on natural gas production as long as the proceeds benefit environmental programs.

Please support this bill so that a meaningful percentage of the revenues generated from the severance tax are reinvested in the environment, public resources and local communities. Public and private water supplies, local infrastructure, natural ecosystems, and recreational assets will all be affected by natural gas drilling and they will need state help to cope with these impacts.

We should not miss this historic chance to secure a dedicated funding source to help address those impacts, as well as to maintain and enhance the very natural resources that generate real economic returns for our state.