LEHIGH VALLEY EXPRESS-TIMES Editorial: Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the Pennsylvania Legislature and Gov. Tom Corbett have put together a sweetheart deal for the natural gas drilling industry — a package of impact fees that ranks among the lowest in the nation, and yanks local zoning control from municipalities affected by drilling.
The Senate passed an impact fee bill Tuesday. The House voted 101-90 Wednesday to send the measure to Corbett’s desk. Democrats weren’t included in talks, and public hearings were bypassed to get the deal done.
To view this as a positive move — adopting fees less than half those charged in Texas and West Virginia, for example, while Corbett proposes steep cuts for higher education and public welfare programs — is to say it is better than nothing. “Nothing” is what Pennsylvania has had in place since the “fracking” search for gas in Marcellus Shale deposits began in the state in 2008…. (more)
