House Members, Environmental Groups Again Blast Forest Leasing Plan, Budget Cuts

House Majority Finance Committee Chair Rep. David Levdansky (D-Allegheny) today again led a crowded press conference of Democratic and Republican lawmakers, environmental and sportsmen groups opposed to the plan to lease State Forest drilling rights to raise $60 million to help balance the FY 2009-10 budget.
They argued requiring the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to lease State Forest land until the $60 million was raised was not only bad public policy, but would squander a public resource and threaten the health of the forest system.
Rep. Levdansky said a broad coalition of environmental, sportsmen and Democratic and Republican members of the House have come together to oppose the leasing plan. At the same time, while a staunch proponent of the proposed natural gas severance tax, he acknowledged the tax was no longer on the table for this year.
Rep. Camille George (D-Clearfield), Majority Chair of the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, said the budget deal "feels like being pushed out of a window with a gun at our backs." He said plans to adopt a natural gas severance tax are down but not out and he would continue to fight to see it enacted.
Rep. Ed Staback (D-Lackawanna), Majority Chair of the House Game and Fisheries Committee, said he was deeply concerned over the State Forest leasing proposal because drilling will hurt industries, like tourism, hunting and fishing, that depend on the forest system and bring in over $5 billion a year in economic value to the state.
Rep. Mike Hanna (D-Clinton), Majority Chair of the House Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee, said the state should go slow on the development of the Marcellus Shale formation noting it is not the same as shallow well drilling and requires much heavier equipment, millions of gallons of water and is more harmful to local infrastructure like roads.
Rep. Kate Harper (R-Montgomery), a member of the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, spoke for several Republicans at the press event saying the timber, oil and gas resources in State Forests should be developed carefully and safely, not to fill a budget hole. "It would be fiscally irresponsible to development them in any other way."
Rep. Greg Vitali (D-Delaware), also a member of the House Environmental Committee, said "the environment is being thrown under the bus" to help balance the budget citing not only the State Forest leasing proposal, but also significant cuts to the General Fund budgets of the departments of Environmental Protection and Conservation and Natural Resources.
Other members of the House attending the event included: Rep. Bob Freeman (D-Northampton) Majority Chair of the House Local Government Committee, Rep. John Siptroth (D-Monroe), Rep. Chris Ross (R-Chester), Rep. Barbara McIlvaine Smith (D-Chester), Rep. Matt Bradford (D-Montgomery), Rep. Tim Briggs (D-Montgomery), Rep. Tom Murt (R-Montgomery), Rep. Babette Josephs (D-Philadelphia) Majority Chair of the House State Government Committee, Rep. Duane Milne (R-Chester), Rep. Tom Houghton (D-Chester), Rep. Tim Seip (D-Schuylkill), and Rep. Chelsa Wagner (D-Allegheny).
Environmental and sportsmen groups attending included: PennFuture, Sierra Club, Pennsylvania Environmental Council, PA Trout Unlimited, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, 10,000 Friends of PA, Federation of Sportsmens Clubs, The Nature Conservancy, the Western PA Conservancy.