PA Environment Digest

The PA Environmental Defense Foundation this week gave Gov. Rendell notice it intents to file a lawsuit challenging the leasing State Forest land for Marcellus Shale drilling to help balance the state budget.

John E. Childe, an attorney for the Foundation, wrote Gov. Rendell saying, "The Foundation believes and avers that your proposal to lease additional State Forest land to supplement the Budget for the Commonwealth for the year 2010 with $180,000,000 is a decisions that will risk the ecological integrity of our State Forest system and is therefore an unlawful decision by you under Article I, Section 27 of Pennsylvania's Constitution.

"This Amendment provides self-executing rights to all the people of the Commonwealth, and enumerates a duty as trustee over Pennsylvania's public lands, for the benefit of all the people of the Commonwealth. As governor of the Commonwealth you bear the specific responsibility for insuring the rights and protection set forth in this Amendment. These rights are mandatory, not discretionary. You do not have the authority to violate them.

"As you know, the purpose of the Oil and Gas Lease Fund, the legislatively created fund where money from leasing state lands for oil and gas exploration is required to be invested, is to protect and preserve the Commonwealth's State Forest System and not to supplement the State Budget.

"As you are also aware, there is no need to require additional leasing of State Forest land. The imposition of a Severance Tax would more than make up for the proposed leasing.

"The Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation welcomes the opportunity to meet to discuss this Notice, and to try to preclude the necessity of filing the action."

The entire letter is available online.
For more information, contact Ron Evans, President of the Foundation at 717-579-2263 or John Childe at 305-712-0172.

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