Thursday, January 9, 2020

IFO: CY 2019 Drilling Impact Fee Revenue To Drop Sharply By $53.6 Million, Triggers Lower Well Fee

On January 9, the Independent Fiscal Office issued its annual projection of revenue for the Act 13 drilling impact fee which shows a $53.6 million drop in revenue is expected for CY 2019 fee collections to $198.2 million from $251.8 million in CY 2018 fees.
The IFO said the primary cause for the 21 percent drop was falling natural gas prices which dropped below the $3.00 trigger in the law causing a $5,000 per horizontal well decrease in the impact fee.
There also was a $7.5 million decrease for disputed CY 2018 fee payments and a $3.8 million increase as new wells drilled offset aging wells which pay a lower fee.
The impact fee is distributed to counties and municipalities, helps fund county conservation districts and statewide environmental programs through the Marcellus Legacy Fund.
In recent years, monies from the Marcellus Legacy Fund have been used to support the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Program which is expected to run out of funding shortly.  
Even though impact fee revenue was at nearly an all time high last year, no monies from the Legacy Fund were transferred to the Environmental Stewardship (Growing Greener) Fund as they normally are. Click Here for more.
Impact fees are paid in April and distributed in July by the Public Utility Commission.  To learn more about how the fees are invested, visit the PUC’s Act 13 Impact Fee webpage.
Posted by at

No comments :

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments ( Atom )

Subscribe To Receive Updates:

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner