Jan Jarrett, president and CEO of Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future and Matthew Royer, attorney for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, this week called on the General Assembly and Gov. Rendell to raise money for environmental programs by adopting a severance tax on natural gas

production and to abandoned alternative plans to lease vast areas of public lands to drill for gas in the Marcellus Shale formation.

The groups also called for an end to the "rubber stamping" of natural gas permits by the Department of Environmental Protection.

Their remarks came one day after the Chesapeake Bay Foundation filed a legal challenge to erosion and sediment control permits issued by the Department of Environmental Protection for drilling activities on Tioga State Forest.

“This is just one of several a legal challenges we have filed because DEP is not doing its job to make sure our State Forests and other stream and wetland resources are protected from the environmental impacts of drilling,” said Royer. “Instead of protecting the environment, DEP is rubber stamping permit applications without any formal review. DEP’s permit review process consists of simply making sure all the paperwork is in the permit application. Unbelievably, they are not conducting any environmental review of the plans that drilling companies are required to submit in order to minimize environmental impacts. Pennsylvania’s precious water resources—our rivers, streams, and wetlands—are at risk due to the lack of thorough DEP oversight.

“We are greatly concerned that, if the severance tax is scrapped in favor of opening up more State Forest lands to drilling, and DEP’s current policy of rubber stamping permits continues, the industry will be left to run rough shod over our State Forests, without contributing anything financially to help mitigate the environmental and local community impacts from drilling,” said Royer.

“Abandoning the severance tax on natural gas and immediately opening up hundreds of thousands of acres of state land to gas drillers is a giveaway to multi-national energy corporations directly at the expense of Pennsylvania taxpayers,” said Jan Jarrett. “The deal that Senate Republicans and blue dog Democrats want to take on behalf of Pennsylvania taxpayers to balance this year’s budget is to let the energy corporations off the hook for a severance tax and allow them to lock up leases on state land at a time when they can pick leases up for bargain basement prices.

Last week Gov. Rendell said the natural gas severance tax was off the table in the current budget negotiations, but House and Senate Democrats said they still favored the idea.

“If Pennsylvania does not assess a severance tax we are allowing the industry to foist the costs of drilling onto taxpayers – wear and tear on local roads, the costs of environmental regulation and oversight, damage to natural resources, strains on policing and emergency services. That’s an insult to Pennsylvania taxpayers,” continued Jarrett.

“The industry is selling the line that leasing will bring in $280 million a year over the next 3 years if it gets access to 390,000 acres of public land. There’s no evidence to support that estimate. But our elected officials are falling for that line like an Internet newbie falling for a Nigerian email scam,” said Jarrett.

“Thoughtful legislators should vigorously oppose this deal solely on the grounds that it cheats Pennsylvania taxpayers out of reasonable payment for the exploitation of a public resource, and it’s a sweetheart giveaway to giant energy corporations. This is no way to balance Pennsylvania’s budget,” concluded Jarrett.

NewsClip: Group Appeals DEP's Expedited Permits For Gas Drilling