Bucks County Republican Looks for Sponsor on Shale Fee

- Bucks County Republican Looks for Sponsor on Shale Fee

Thursday, June 09, 2011
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
by Brad Bumsted, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

A Bucks County Republican is asking legislators to co-sponsor her shale impact fee which she says is designed to try to win GOP Gov. Tom Corbett's approval.

Corbett has said any measure must be a fee and not a tax and the main purpose must be to help compensate municipalities for damages gas drilling causes. He has said revenue from a fee should not go into the state's General Fund.

For starters, Rep. Marguerite Quinn says her proposal is a fee. It is not based on gas well production nor is it tied to the price of natural gas like a half-dozen or so tax proposals pending in the House and Senate, she said. It's a flat rate on a declining scale, starting at $50,000 per well.

While the state Department of Revenue would collect the fee, the revenue would not go into the General Fund, Quinn told colleagues in a memo seeking co-sponsorship.

"I've been working on it -- something that does meet the governor's criteria," Quinn said today. "I tried to respect the governor's call for no tax. I made it a simple impact fee."

Asked about Quinn's proposal, Kevin Harley, Corbett's spokesman was non-committal. "Gov. Corbett has said he is open to an impact fee. But he wants to wait until his Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission issues a report."

The commission, headed by Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley, is attempting to quantify local drilling costs. The report will be issued July 22 while lawmakers are likely on summer recess after adopting a state budget by June 30.

Quinn said she plans to meet with Cawley to outline her proposal.

Under Quinn's proposal, half of the revenue would be deposited into an "impact mitigation fund" for use by counties and municipalities hosting drilling. That would cover fire, police and emergency service costs, as well local water issues, and repairing roads and bridges.

Twenty-five percent of money would go for statewide environmental projects and hazardous waste cleanup. The money would go to a state fund for environmental use called Growing Greener. It would be used for projects such as watershed protection, acid mine drainage abatement and cleanup and plugging of wells.

And 20 percent of the revenue would go to the state Motor License fund for road and bridge repairs. Five percent would go to local conservation districts.

Quinn says she is calling her plan a fee on shale, not Marcellus shale. The point is to cover drilling in deeper layers beneath the Marcellus shale formation such as the Utica formation.

"We don't want to be shortsighted in structuring this and have to re-invent the wheel later," she said.

Copyright (c) 2011, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Oil & Gas Post

Promote Your Page Too

Va. Dem Bucks Administration on Offshore Leasing

Va. Dem Bucks Administration on Offshore Leasing

Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Daily Press, Newport News, Va.
by Cory Nealon

There's nothing like a politician not seeking re-election.

Case in point: U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va.

Since announcing in February he would not seek re-election, Webb has bucked President Barack Obama, a fellow Democrat, on a handful of issues.

First, he criticized Obama's handling of the turmoil in Libya. Next, he backed a bill that would've halted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases, which Obama favors because the Senate didn't pass energy legislation in 2009.

Now he's calling on Obama to open Virginia's coast to oil and natural gas exploration.

"As gas prices rise, in part due to America's dependence on foreign oil, we must pursue robust energy policies that include the expansion of our domestic energy resources in a safe and secure manner, as well as conservation and clean energy measures," Webb said in a statement issued by his office last week.

He also asked Obama to expand the 2.9-million acre tract -- slightly larger than Delaware -- located 50 miles off Virginia's shore that was previously considered for drilling.

The request comes a little more than a year after Obama announced he would open much of the East Coast, including Virginia, to drilling. Obama scrapped the plan, however, after last year's Gulf of Mexico oil spill, which killed 11 and caused untold damage to the gulf's ecosystem.

For those of you keeping tabs at home, the offshore drilling bill that Webb supports comes from Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke -- the same lawmaker trying to curtail the EPA's aggressive Chesapeake Bay Restoration plan.

Who says the House and Senate can't work together?

Global warming

I got a fair amount of feedback -- most of it critical -- about an article last week concerning global warming skeptic Roy W. Spencer.

Spencer spoke at the Environment Virginia Symposium at the request of Gov. Bob McDonnell's administration.

Spencer said that he agrees with most of what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- the body of scientists that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore -- has to say about global warming.

However, he highlighted gaps in the panel's data and questioned whether mankind is causing the Earth to warm through its use of fossil fuels.

The view is not popular among environmental activists and scientists, both of whom have criticized the media for giving Spencer and similar-minded scientists a platform to expound their views.

What I haven't heard is anyone complaining that Spencer said something false or inaccurate. Instead, the gripes centered on his conservative and evangelical affiliations, which were pointed out in the article.

If you still feel he doesn't deserve a seat at the table, my phone number and email are below. As always, comments are welcomed.