Rep. Rick Saccone (R-Allegheny) this week circulated a memo asking House members to co-sponsor legislation he plans to introduce to end the moratorium on drilling for natural gas on State Forest land and put the proceeds into a special fund to replace or repair deficient highway bridges across the state.  The text of the memo follows--

“In the near future, I plan on introducing legislation that would require DCNR to make 300,000 acres of state owned land available for natural gas development. All payments and royalties generated from the newly leased land will be deposited into a restricted account in the Motor License Fund to be used for the repair of weight restricted bridges.

“PennDOT recently added or increased weight restrictions on 1,000 structurally deficient bridges because, according to PennDOT Secretary Schoch, the legislature failed to approve a multibillion dollar transportation funding plan that included tax and fee increases. I do not believe that the legislature should be considering tax and fee increases.

“Instead, we need to ensure that public dollars and state resources are being used efficiently; we need to live within our means. Rather than taking more money from the taxpayers of Pennsylvania, we need to consider other sources of funding, such as royalties and payments from natural gas development on state owned land.

“In 2010, Gov. Rendell issued an executive order that placed a moratorium on the leasing of state forest lands for natural gas development.  Due to this executive order, Marcellus shale under approximately 800,000 acres of state forest land cannot be explored and developed unless the General Assembly takes legislative action. 

“Under my legislation, DCNR would be required to publicly auction at least 300,000 acres of land over 3 fiscal years for natural gas exploration and development. Also, DCNR can only accept bids greater than $3,500 per acre and must require a royalty payment of 16 percent of the market value of gas produced at each wellhead.

“Considering the minimum bid requirement, my legislation will raise at least $1.05 billion in funding for the repair weight restricted bridges over three fiscal years.”

Click Here for a copy of the draft legislation.

NewsClips:

DCNR Fueled With Natural Gas Drilling Revenue

DCNR Approach To Drilling On State Forest Lands

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