Welcome to the Business Journal Archives
Search for articles below, or continue to the all new BusinessJournalDaily.com now.
Search
Shale Well Impact Fees Generate $406M for Pa.
HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Pennsylvania Act 13 has generated more than $202 million through an impact fee assessed on unconventional wells drilled in 2012, the state treasury department reports.
The state also collected more than $204 million last fall, bringing the total to more than $406 million in less than eight months, with the majority of the revenues going to local communities.
"This industry is here to stay, and its benefits for every Pennsylvanian are clear: clean air for all, more jobs for working families, and hundreds of millions in impact fee dollars for local communities," said Gov. Tom Corbett in a prepared statement. "Act 13 raised the bar for environmental compliance, and also sets aside money to deal with impacts. Local governments are taking this money and putting it to good use."
In addition to financing environmental reclamation and water infrastructure projects across the state, the impact fee is protecting public health and safety, the governor said. The act is supporting the work of the Department of Environmental Protection, County Conservation Districts, the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and the office of the state fire commissioner.
The law, signed in February 2012, brought the most significant modernization of the state's oil and gas law in nearly three decades, Corbett noted. The law includes one of the most progressive fracturing fluid disclosure statutes in the nation, increased setbacks from water supplies for well drilling, and greater protections of private water supplies.
Local governments, which are receiving the bulk of impact fee revenues, can use their shares on various expenses related to natural gas development such as construction, repair and maintenance of roads, bridges and other public infrastructure, water, storm water and sewer system construction and repair, emergency response preparedness, training, equipment, responder recruitment and delivery of social services, including domestic relations, drug and alcohol treatment, job training and counseling.
Under Act 13, state agencies with responsibility and oversight of natural gas development will receive $15.5 million in funding for this round of impact fee revenues, Corbett said. About $103 million will go directly to local governments. According to the Public Utility Commission, 39 counties have had an unconventional well drilled in their jurisdictions.
The remaining 40% of the revenue -- or approximately $72 million -- will be used for projects in all 67 counties and their municipalities and set aside for competitive grants for projects such as water and sewer, bridge improvements, community parks and recreation, Growing Greener and other municipal projects.
A recent DEP emissions inventory detailed that since shale gas development began in earnest, significant reductions in sulfur dioxide emissions have represented between $14 billion and $37 billion of annual public health benefit.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
CLICK HERE to subscribe to our free daily email headlines and to our twice-monthly print edition.