Ask the PA Legislature to Favor Natural Resources Over Gas Drillers

The current Pennsylvania Budget has been proposed to cut $77 million to $154 million, in environmental funding. This is in addition to the proposal to divert $174 million in revenue from State Forest natural gas leases to the General Fund to balance this year's budget; which, if successful, would be the largest diversion of environmental funding in Pennsylvania's history.

A report issued by the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, “Responsible Growth: Protecting the Public Interest with a Natural Gas Severance Tax,” makes a sound case for the need to protect Pennsylvania’s environment and economy as companies line up to exploit the gas reserves in the Marcellus Shale formation. With reason, clarity and enough statistics to choke a university professor, the report lays out a compelling case for a severance tax on natural gas. Scientists estimate this to be worth as much as one trillion dollars which would go a long way to help Pennsylvania's budget shortfall

The report also stated that severance taxes are common across the United States as a way to cover the public costs -- most notably environmental ones -- created by resource extraction. 14 states with greater natural-gas production levy a severance tax or a conservation fee. The report concludes that without a tax, the costs of drilling would be shifted to local taxpayers.

Pennsylvania & New York are the only major fossil fuel-producing states that do not levy a mineral resource extraction tax. In addition Marcellus Shale producers, who are accustomed to paying such severance taxes in other states, do not pay Pennsylvania's Corporate Net Income Tax.

The gas drillers claim that they cannot afford to pay a severance tax, but a quote from a Chesapeake Energy Corporation executive, one of the major companies developing the Marcellus Shale reveals the real situation. “We gladly pay a severance tax in every state where we’re active, except New York & Pennsylvania.”

A coalition of environmental groups has supported allocating a portion of the natural gas tax revenues to the Environmental Stewardship Fund, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, the Game Commission and local governments.

Please sign the petition to request the Pennsylvania legislature to support:

• A fair and reasonable tax on the extraction of natural gas.
• Dedicating a portion of the tax to the Environmental Stewardship Fund and to the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat and Game Commissions to restore wildlife habitat and improve public access.
• Dedicating a portion of the tax to help local governments impacted by natural gas drilling operations.
• Balance and restraint in leasing public lands for gas extraction. The impact of leasing 74,000 acres of state forest in 2008 and potential impacts of additional leasing should be carefully evaluated before opening up more public land for drilling.
• When natural gas and other resources are taken from public forestlands, the revenues generated should be reinvested in the conservation and restoration of the Commonwealth’s natural resources.

List of supporting organizations
Addtional Infomation