Independent Fiscal Office Estimates CY 2025 Act 13 Drilling Impact Fee Revenues At $235 Million, $70 Million More Than CY 2024

The Independent Fiscal Office estimates CY 2025 Act 13 Drilling Impact Fee Revenues at $235 Million, $70 Million more than CY 2024, and $43.9 million less than 2022.

The Act 13 Drilling Impact Fee is paid by unconventional shale gas drillers.  Conventional oil and gas well owners pay nothing.

This per well fee is based in part on the price of natural gas which has increased 72% since last year and the number of new wells drilled from January to June 18 increased 23.4% over the same period last year, according to the IFO..

Click Here for the IFO report.

Due to this unique formula, the Act 13 Impact Fee produces an inconsistent source of revenue to support payments to counties and communities with impacts from shale gas drilling and to support statewide environmental restoration programs.

A report in September  of 2024 by the Pittsburgh-based Allegheny Institute for Public Policy published a policy brief on the steep decline in revenues from the Act 13 shale gas impact fees going to counties and municipalities saying they need to "begin lowering their expectations" on support from the shale gas industry.  Read more here.

PA Oil & Gas Industry Public Notice Dashboards:

-- PA Oil & Gas Industrial Facilities: Permit Notices, Opportunities To Comment - June 21 [PaEN]

-- DEP Posted 60  Pages Of Permit-Related Notices In June 21 PA Bulletin  [PaEN]

Related Articles This Week:

-- Cecil Twp. Zoning Hearing Board Dismisses Range Resources Validity Challenge To 2,500 Foot Setback Ordinance For Shale Gas Wells In Washington County  [PaEN]

-- Marcellus Drilling News: Commonwealth Court Overturns Elizabeth Townships’s Approval Of Olympus Energy Shale Gas Wells, Infrastructure In Allegheny County  [PaEN]

-- Protect PT Will Appeal EHB Decision To Allow CNX Resources To Drill Shale Gas Wells Just Hundreds Of Feet From Homes In Penn Twp., Westmoreland County  [PaEN]

-- Susquehanna River Basin Commission Approved 38 Shale Gas Well Pad Water Use General Permits In May; 225 In 2025  [PaEN]

-- DEP Soliciting Bids To Plug 15 Orphan Conventional Gas Wells In Clinton County  [PaEN]

-- Gov. Shapiro: Wait Times Cut For Permits Even Further; DEP Reduced Permit Backlog By 94% 

-- Independent Fiscal Office Estimates CY 2025 Act 13 Drilling Impact Fee Revenues At $235 Million, $70 Million More Than CY 2024  [PaEN] 

-- PUC Approves $750,000 Penalty On UGI For 2020 Pipeline Rupture In Monroe County That  Killed A Woman, Injured 2 Others 

-- PUC Pipeline Safety Programs Earn Top Marks From Federal Evaluators

-- Cameron County Chamber Innovation Center Kitchen Switches To Electric Induction Stove, Energy Star Appliances With Help From West Penn Energy Fund  [PaEN]  

NewsClips:

-- TribLive: Protect PT Appeals Environmental Hearing Board Approval Of 2 Penn Twp. Shale Gas Well Permits In Westmoreland

-- WVIA: UGI, PUC Settle Natural Gas Eruption Case That Killed A Woman In Monroe County

-- CNN: EPA Telling Some Staff To Stop Policing The Oil & Gas Industry

[Posted: June 20, 2025]  PA Environment Digest