Sen. Yaw To Deny Counties Act 13 Drilling Impact Fee Revenue If They Make Only 99% Of Their Land Area Available For Shale Gas Development

On July 19, Sen. Gene Yaw (R-Lycoming), Majority Chair of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, circulated a memo to all Senators asking them to co-sponsor legislation to ban counties that ban fracking under county-owned land from receiving their share of funding from the Act 13 drilling impact fees and related grants.

The bill denies counties the basic right of determining how they want to use property they own by punishing them.

“It is only fitting that those counties which choose to support the safe and responsible development of our domestic energy resources benefit from those Impact Fee and Legacy funds,” said Sen. Yaw.  “Municipalities within a county that bans natural gas development under county-owned land will still receive their municipal distributions of the Impact Fee.”

The legislation was proposed in response to action in Allegheny County to ban fracking under county-owned parks.

On July 20, the locally-elected Allegheny County Council members overrode the veto of the fracking ban under county-owned parks by the locally-elected Allegheny County Executive by a vote of 12 to 3.  Ten votes were needed to override.  Read more here.

Allegheny County-owned park land makes up less than 1 percent of the land area in the county, leaving the remaining 99 percent of the county open for shale gas drilling.  Read more here.

After the initial passage of the fracking ban in county parks, County Executive Rich Fitzgerald made it clear he would institute his own ban on fracking by not signing new leases for shale gas drilling on or under any county-owned park land for the remainder of his term, but wanted to preserve that option for future county leaders.  Read more here.

In 2021, Allegheny County’s allocation from the Act 13 drilling impact fee revenue was $1,864,756.64, according to the PUC’s Act 13 fee website.

Just one Senatorial District-- Sen. Yaw’s--  received 20.5 percent of all Act 13 drilling impact fee revenue collected for calendar 2021.  Read more here.

If Sen. Yaw’s legislation became law, his district would stand to gain even more money, in spite of the fact more than 99 percent of Allegheny County would still be available for shale gas development.

Sen. Yaw has also announced or supported legislation to--

-- Prohibit municipalities from moving to clean energy sources to fight climate change that was just vetoed by Gov. Wolf [Read more here];

-- Prohibit the state from owning renewable energy credits [Read more here];

-- Ban the sale of Pennsylvania natural gas to states that impede pipeline development [Read more here]; and 

--Take away DEP’s authority to adopt regulations to reduce carbon pollution from power plants and other sources [Read more here].

(Illustration: Green represents the 1 percent of land area in Allegheny County affected by the fracking ban.)

NewsClips:

-- TribLive Editorial: Veto Of Fracking In Allegheny County Parks Not A Defeat For County Executive, But A Victory For People And Process

-- Warren Times: Warren City Planners Reject Council’s Inquiry Into Allowing Oil Drilling In Parks, Areas Zoned For Preservation 

Related Article:

-- Guest Essay: PA Budget's Historic Investments In Clean Water Is A Watershed Moment - By Bill Chain, Interim Director, Chesapeake Bay Foundation-PA  [PaEN]

[Posted: July 20, 2022]  PA Environment Digest