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Video Blog: House Members, Groups Oppose Expanding Natural Gas Leasing In State Forests
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Members of the House, environmental and sportsmen's groups this week urged Gov. Rendell to drop his plan to lease more State Forest land for Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling to help balance the budget. Instead, the groups urged adoption of a natural gas production severance tax. Legislators present included Representatives Brendan Boyle (D-Philadelphia), Paul Drucker (D-Chester), Bob Freeman (D-Northampton) Majority Chair of the House Local Government Committee, Mike Hanna (D-Centre) Majority Chair of the House Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee, Kate Harper (R-Montgomery), Tom Houghton (D-Chester), David Levdansky (D-Allegheny) Majority Chair of the House Finance Committee, Tony Payton (D-Philadelphia), Steven Santarsiero (D-Bucks), Tim Seip (D-Schuylkill), John Siptroth (D-Monroe), and Greg Vitali (D-Delaware).
Groups included: David Masur, PennEnvironment, Jan Jarrett, PennFuture, Pennsylvania League of Women Voters, PA Land Trust Association, Jeff Souders, PA Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs, Curt Ashenfelter, Keystone Trails Association Watch These Videos
Watch these videos from the press conference--
-- Rep. David Levdansky (D-Allegheny), Majority Chair House Finance Committee;
-- Rep. Kate Harper (R-Montgomery);
-- Jan Jarrett, PennFuture;
-- Jeff Schmidt, Sierra Club;
-- Curt Ashenfelter, Keystone Trails Association; and
-- Jeff Souders, PA Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs.
"We are the stewards of the best state forest system in the U.S., and I will do anything and everything within my power to see that legacy passed onto my children and future generations of Pennsylvanians," said Rep. Levdansky. "The state forest land was acquired and expanded to provide a source of recreation for Pennsylvanians, not a source of revenue for the extraction industries. Using the state forest system as a cash cow to fund the state budget is the worst environmental policy proposal I have seen in my legislative career, and the irreversible impact will haunt us forever."
Of the 2.1 million acres of state forest land, only 1.5 million are within the Marcellus Shale region. He said approximately 700,000 of those acres are already under lease or the state doesn't own the mineral rights, and all of the remaining acreage falls in an environmentally sensitive or ecotourism region and should not be leased.
"We've seen 106,000 acres leased in less than two years and over half of the state forest acreage in the gas producing region is now open to gas development," Rep. Levdansky said. "Enough is enough. Once the gas companies are finished with that pristine land, it may never be the same. Instead, our forests will be a checker board of drilling activity, fragmented by access roads, well heads and pipelines."
Rep. Levdansky said requiring the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to continue to lease out additional acreage for natural gas drilling would be an unprecedented intrusion on the agency's mission to conserve forest lands. He added that this would amount to an environmental assault simply to gain one-time grabs of leasing revenue for the state's General Fund.
"The state constitution names us as stewards of clean air and pure water for our citizens, and state forests help us protect those resources," Rep. Harper said. "When the majority of lawmakers agreed to lease an unlimited number of acres of forest land as part of last year's budget without regard to the impact on our environment, we failed to live up to our constitutional obligation to manage our forests sustainably."
"No amount of money is worth sacrificing our clean air and clean water," Rep. Harper said."I do not believe the state should be competing with private land owners who could benefit financially from leasing their own properties."
The Governor's proposal would also raid the entire Oil and Gas Lease Fund, which collects revenues from leases and royalties on state land currently used to reinvest in the park system and to fund DCNR.
The department has a list of more than $100 million in projects ready to begin if funding were available. The funds for these projects would only come from the Oil and Gas Lease Fund.
House Removes Leasing Funds
As the first step in this year's budget process, the House Appropriations Committee this week reported out House Bill 2279 (D.Evans-D-Philadelphia) containing the General Fund budget, after stripping out $180 million in funding from the bill that was revenue projected from natural gas drilling leases of State Forest land with Democratic and Republican votes.
Rep. Evans at first said the funding was removed because it more properly belonged in another bill. Later he said he didn't know if the revenue should be included in this year's budget at all.
Two Year Budget Agreement
The two-year budget agreement in October requires DCNR to produce $60 million from oil and gas leases to help balance the 2009-10 budget and there is an agreement to require DCNR to produce $180 million from leases to balance the 2010-11 budget.
In past years $174 million was used from DCNR's Oil and Gas Fund to balance the 2007-08 budget and $43 million to balance the 2008-09 budget.
Click here to watch the entire press conference in one sitting.
NewsClips: House Members Oppose More Gas Leases In State Forests Editorial: Exploitation Of Public Lands Bad Way To Fund Budget
Travel Dangerous On Forbes State Forest Roads Note: Photo represents traditional shallow well drilling patterns in and near the Allegheny National Forest.
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3/15/2010 |
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