By John Manganaro
Staff Reporter
Capitolwire
HARRISBURG (July 15) — The governor’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission voted Friday morning to include the adoption of a local impact fee on drillers in its final recommendations to the Legislature and executive branch set for release next week.
The commission debated what exactly constitutes an impact and how an impact should be addressed by the fee for nearly an hour. Members approved one amendment that would allow fee revenues to “restore outdoor recreational opportunities” near drilling sites and rejected another that, as one commission member said, “would move the fee perilously close to the realm of a severance tax.”
A severance tax was not included in any of the recommendations approved by the commission before it broke for lunch shortly before noon.
Jeff Wheeland, Lycoming County Commissioner and vice chair of the commission’s Local Impact and Emergency Response subcommittee, outlined the commission’s stance on an impact fee. He said fee revenues must be used to compensate local communities with “specific, demonstrated areas of impact.”
When other members pressed for a wider definition of “impact,” he responded they would want to fund Kindergarten next.
At a press conference after Friday’s meeting Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley said the commission found that there are impacts associated with the “growth and development of Marcellus Shale drilling.”
“There are areas that we have either through personal contact, anecdotal evidence, empirical evidence, have determined that there are impacts associated with the growth and development of Marcellus Shale that are borne by primarily local and county governments. There are subject areas that were identified as areas that if an impact…is detrermined in one of those areas that it may be eligible for a fee to help them to meet that impact, additional resources in order to meet that impact.”
When asked whether the recommendations will include a flat rate or a volume-based rate and how it would be distributed, Cawley said: “That is a matter that we believed best resides in the legislative process, working cooperatively. We did not feel it appropriate to get down to that.
“What our charge was from the governor was to determine whether or not there were uncompensated impacts that might require an impact fee, and in some cases we did in fact find that there are. But what they looks like is much more a matter for the administration and the Legislature to tackle.”
Impacts appropriate for compensation include, but aren’t limited to, the following:
– Local emergency response and training
– Improving public safety
– Improving public water
– Recouping costs associated with inspection and maintenance of roads and bridges
– Increased demand on social services
– Increased judicial system costs
– Environmental remediation associated with well site development
– State emergency response training, public health evaluation, data collection and claims investigation
– Community-based projects to protect and restore land, water resources, wildlife and outdoor recreational opportunities.
Commission members stressed that their recommendations are only “the end of the beginning.” Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley, who heads the commission, warned members that recommendations will likely undergo signification modification during the legislative process.
The committee also voted to include in its final report a number of other recommendations suggested by the Local Impact and Emergency Response subcommittee. These include:
– Oil and gas well pads should be given a 911 and GPS address for emergency response operators.
– Coordination should be improved between Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and the state Department of Environmental Protection.
– Communities should establish a specialized emergency response team to enhance incident management, capable of immediate response anywhere in the commonwealth.
– County and regional safety taskforces utilizing public-private partnerships should be developed to respond to emergencies.
– Develop comprehensive training programs for local fire and emergency responders
– The state should develop a unified command center for responses to well pad emergencies.
– Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, in cooperation with state police, must establish a protocol for emergency movement of drilling and safety equipment.
