CAPITOL WIRE / AP: An environmental advocacy group on Tuesday sued Gov. Tom Corbett to get Pennsylvania’s state government to stop using money from Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling in publicly owned forests for anything besides improving the public lands…
The Camp Hill-based group said both administrations used money from Marcellus Shale drilling leases and royalties on state forests for general government expenditures, in violation of a constitutional provision to conserve and maintain public resources.
The suit also cites a sweeping new natural gas drilling law signed last month by Corbett that would divert tens of millions of dollars a year from the fund for two environmental cleanup programs, one nicknamed Growing Greener and another called the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund. The total amount to be transferred reaches $50 million a year in 2016.
