Legislation is moving in the state House to enact one of the smallest levies on gas drilling in the nation. House Bill 1950 adopts Governor Corbett’s drilling impact fee plan, amounting to a 1% effective rate over the 50-year life of an average Marcellus well. It would be a big gift to drillers.
Legislation is moving in the state House to enact one of the smallest levies on gas drilling in the nation. House Bill 1950 adopts Governor Corbett’s drilling impact fee plan, amounting to a 1% effective rate over the 50-year life of an average Marcellus well. It would be a big gift to drillers.
Nearly every other energy-producing state in the nation levies a more robust tax or fee on drilling. Drillers in Texas will pay five times as much in drilling taxes over the life of a comparable deep well as they will in the Marcellus Shale under the House plan.
The bill also strips authority from cities, boroughs and towns to regulate local gas drilling activity – a right protected by state law and upheld by the state Supreme Court. Local zoning laws will be eviscerated, while property owners hundreds of miles from active drilling sites could find a pipeline running through their subdivision or a compressor station next to their playground, with no recourse.
House Bill 1950 was approved by the House Finance Committee on a party-line vote Wednesday and could come before the full House for a vote the week of November 14. Meanwhile, the state Senate continues to negotiate the details of its own drilling fee plan.
Things will move fast in Harrisburg over the coming weeks. Let’s hope that our lawmakers cross the drillers off their gift list and do the right thing for the people of Pennsylvania.