Gas report gets mixed responses

MATT HUGHES

mhughes@timesleader.com

Following the release of Gov. ’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission’s final report Friday, statewide groups representing municipalities, the gas industry and environmental concerns weighed in on the commission’s recommendations.

The County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors both applauded the commission’s recommendation of levying a local impact fee to compensate municipalities for impacts on infrastructure, the environment, public safety and other areas caused by the drilling industry.

The Township Supervisors Association also agreed with the commission’s decision to leave land-use control and decision making to local communities.

Other groups were less positive in their assessments of the report.

Some of the harshest criticism of the report came from the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, whose director, Sharon Ward, called the report a missed opportunity to examine the broad impacts of Marcellus Shale drilling, both positive and negative.

“Instead, it has made recommendations that read like an industry wish list,” Ward said in a statement.

Ward said the impact fees the report recommends be assessed drillers to limited in focusing only on demonstrated impacts, but failing to address broader statewide impacts to water and air quality, societal impacts and habitat disruption.

“Without this discussion, the report is incomplete,” she said.

The four environmental consultants appointed to the commission, representing the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Pennsylvania Environmental Council, The Nature Conservancy and Western Pennsylvania Conservancy also expressed concerns about several of the panel’s recommendations, including:

• the lack of explicit language prohibiting future surface drilling in state forest land,

• the lack of clear environmental or surface impact reduction standards relating to the concept of pooling, and

• the failure to specifically include Growing Greener or the Environmental Stewardship Fund in the local impact fee provisions.

“We consider the report to be a meaningful first step toward improving Pennsylvania’s oversight of shale gas extraction, but additional improvements must be accomplished as the debate shifts to the General Assembly,” the four environmental representatives said in a joint statement.

The Marcellus Shale Coalition, a gas-industry group with several member companies represented on the commission, did not discuss specific recommendations of the commission.