Thursday NewsClips

Senate, House Advance Drilling Bills
Municipalities Pleased With Amendments To Drilling Bill
House Approves Amendment To Marcellus Shale Bill
Lawmakers Voting On Compressor, Pipeline Issues
Poll: Residents See Money In Gas Drilling
DEP Reviews Its Shale Inspections
NYT: Situation Normall All Fracked Up
Seminar Offers Shale Activists Information On Drilling
Well Regulation Debate Reaches U.S. House
EPA Counsel Outlines Efforts To Regulate Drilling
Pickens In Pittsburgh To Boost Shale Gas
Op-Ed: Marcellus Shale Tax Could Restore Some Funding Cuts
Op-Ed: Don't Use Drilling Tax Revenue For Others' Projects
Senate Approves $150 Million Flood Relief Package
Senate Approves Flood Relief Package
Crisis Counseling Available To Midstate Flood Victims
2011 Officially Philadelphia's Wettest Ever
EPA Honors Mercyhurst, Allegheny College For Green Power
Game Commission Posts Deer Age Video
Point State Park Fountain To Overflow With Renovations
Farm Bureau Still Against Expanded Sunday Hunting
Click Here for PA Capitol Digest

House Republicans Vote To End Consideration Of Marcellus Bill Amendments

House Republicans tonight ended debate on their Marcellus Shale bill-- House Bill 1950 (Ellis-R-Butler)-- by voting 105 to 88 to move the bill to Second Consideration by making a motion for the previous question.

The motion ends the ability of members to offer amendments to the bill without suspending the rules. Suspending the rules requires a two-thirds vote.

The bill was then referred to the House Appropriations Committee.

The House did consider 12 more amendments, 9 of the amendments were adopted and the remainder were voted down or withdrawn.

Amendments were added by Rep. John Mahr (R-Allegheny) to make certain reports required by the Oil and Gas Act public records, requiring the soundproofing of compressor stations within 2,500 feet of a dwelling, requiring the drilling fee to be paid whether a Marcellus well is producing or not and several technical amendments.

Another amendment by Rep. Mahr to increase the bonding amount for the reconstruction of roads from $6,000 to $250,000 per mile was defeated 151 to 42.

An amendment by Rep. Bud George (D-Clearfield) gives residents living between 2,500 to 5,500 feet of a well the right to a pre-drilling survey.

An amendment offered by Rep. Greg Vitali (D-Delaware) to require DEP to adopt protocols for air contamination emissions was also adopted.

The House will reconvene Thursday at 9:00 a.m.

Student Scholarships Now Available From Delaware Valley Air & Waste Mgmt. Assn.

The Delaware Valley Chapter of the Air & Waste Management Association is pleased to offer scholarships to students pursuing a career in the environmental field. The deadline for applications is February 15.

The scholarships offered by the DVC A&WMA are available for tuition, books, or other expenses. Award amounts for the scholarships range from $500 to $2000 per awardee and are determined based on the quality of the applications received.

Students must be a resident of our Chapter's geographic area (Pennsylvania east of the Susquehanna River; Delaware, and southern New Jersey) or be attending a college or university within the Chapter's geographic area.

Additionally, one grant-in aid award of approximately $1,000 is available to reimburse a student for registration fees and travel costs to the annual A&WMA meeting in San Antonio, Texas in June 2012. This conference offers an excellent opportunity for networking and finding that first job.

Click Here for more details and to apply or contact Margjorie Fitzpatrick, IES Engineers, 610-828-3078 or send email to: mfitzpatrick@iesengineers.com.

Migration Focus Of Fall Issue Of WRCP Keystone Wild!Notes Newsletter

What makes an animal migrate? How do they know where and when to go? Do amphibians and reptiles migrate? These and other questions are answered in the fall issue of Keystone Wild!Notes, a quarterly e-zine from the Wild Resource Conservation Program.

Articles are written by experts in the field, like Hawk Mountain biologist Dr. Laurie Goodrich, and feature colorful photos and links for more information.

This issue, as well as previous editions, can be downloaded for free at the WRCP webpage. Be sure to subscribe so you’ll never miss an issue.

2012 WRCP Calendar Features PA Rare And Endangered Plants, Animals

Looking for a great calendar for 2012? Download the Wild Resource Conservation Program Calendar featuring rare and endangered plants and animals in Pennsylvania.

The WRCP is Pennsylvania’s biodiversity conservation program. WRCP works to conserve Pennsylvania’s non-game animals, wild plants and their habitats. WRCP also works to educate the public and school-aged youth about the importance of Pennsylvania’s species and special places.

The plants and animals featured in this 2012 downloadable calendar are some of those WRCP has focused on in the educational products created by, or in conjunction with, the Wild Resource Conservation Program.

Add Your Event

New to this year’s calendar is an interactive feature – events are clickable and will take you to a website for more information. Have an environmental or wildlife-related event you would like to add to the calendar? Send the date, event title, and website address by email to: jsprajcar@pa.gov and WRCP will make every effort to add it.

Click Here to download your free 2012 WRCP Calendar.

Poll: 72 Percent Support Tax On Drilling Companies

72 percent of those surveyed in a new Muhlenberg College poll support imposing a tax on Marcellus Shale drilling companies. The poll also found 41 percent said drilling has yielded more benefits than problems, while 33 percent said it posed more problems. 26 percent said pros and cons came out equal.

At the same time, 60 percent agreed to some extent drilling poses a major risk to the state's water resources. 91 percent said the public has a right to know what chemicals are used in the fracking process. 48 percent agreed environmental groups and 44 percent said the news media, to some extent, overstate drilling's environmental impact.

60 percent of those surveyed believed natural gas companies have too much influence on Gov. Corbett's decisions on drilling regulation.

NewsClips:

Poll Says PA Sees More Pros Than Cons In Shale Industry

Poll: Gas Companies Have Too Much Heft In PA

Wednesday NewsClips

Shale Impact Fee Clears Senate
Senate Approves Marcellus Shale Impact Fee
Senate Approves Impact Fee Bill
Senate Passes An Impact Fee
Heavily Debated Marcellus Shale Bill Passes Senate
Do This Week's Impact Fee Votes Matter?
New Oil And Gas Inspection Procedures Designed For Uniformity
DEP Plan To Enforce Drilling Rules More Uniformily
Critics Of Natural Gas Drilling Gear Up For DRBC Vote
Krancer To Testify In U.S. House Hearing On Fracking
Family's Lawsuit Claims Gas Driller Lied About Property Value
Federal Agency OKs Endless Mountains Pipeline Project
Challenge Vowed To Gas Pipeline In Northern PA
New York Set To Begin Hearings On Gas Drilling Rules
Senate Moves NE PA Flood Aid
Flood Assistance Centers To Close On Friday
Rising Cost Of Flood Insurance A Worry
ECOvanta Reminds Businesses, Consumers To Recycle E-Waste
PECO Residential Electric Rates To Drop 10.6 Percent
PA GIS Day Hosted By HACC
Click Here for PA Capitol Digest

House Debate On Republican Marcellus Shale Bill Starts, But Not Finished

After nearly 8 and a half hours of debate, the House considered 38 of the more than 100 amendments filed to the House Republican Marcellus Shale bill-- House Bill 1950 (Ellis-R-Butler), before they ran out of time and adjourned at 11:00 p.m. as their rules require.

House Republicans prevented the consideration of dozens of amendments by saying they contained more than one subject and were therefore unconstitutional. Democrats countered by appealing the ruling, but ultimately lost each vote along party-lines.

A handful of amendments did make it into the bill, including two amendments by Rep. Bud George (D-Clearfield), Minority Chair of the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, which further provides for affect of pre-drilling surveys.

Amendments by Rep. Tina Pickett (R-Bradford) requiring further notification of landowners and water companies on pre-drilling surveys and two amendments offered by Rep. Dan Moul (R-Adams) creating a $5 million and a $7.5 million natural gas vehicle conversion grant and loan programs funded by the DCNR Oil and Gas Fund for certain transit systems were also adopted.

Rep. Matt Baker (R-Tioga) offered a gut and replace amendment that included only one change in the language. It replaced the blanket preemption of local regulation of drilling sought by Gov. Corbett with an approach used by the Senate in Senate Bill 1100 (Scarnati-R-Jefferson) based on the ACRE Program which offers a process to challenge local ordinances limiting agricultural operations.

The language would allow drilling companies to request the Attorney General to review local ordinances to determine whether the ordinance allows for the reasonable development of oil and gas mineral rights.

No changes were made to the county-optional drilling fee advocated by Gov. Corbett. A provision added to House Bill 1950 would also transfer funds out of DCNR's Oil and Gas Fund to finance the Environmental Stewardship (Growing Greener) Fund as expanded by Gov. Rendell to include alternative energy and economic development projects like parking garages.

These are not the narrowly focused priorities established in the original Growing Greener Program proposed by Gov. Ridge-- mine reclamation, watershed restoration, farmland preservation and wastewater and drinking water projects.

Transfers would also be used to fund county conservation districts, the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund and to increase in-lieu of tax payments for state owned land.

The environmental protection provisions in House Bill 1950 mirror the measures the Governor announced in October.

House Republicans added Thursday as a voting session day, perhaps in anticipation of two more days of work on House Bill 1950.

House Adds Thursday As Voting Day

The House has added Thursday, November 17 as a voting session day.