|
|
|
Drilling bill passes in the Senate - with help from a couple Philly legislators
A compromise could bring funds from shale gas drilling - but at the cost of municipalities' ability to control access.
Drilling bill passes in the Senate — with help from a couple Philly legislators
In a 31-to-19 vote, the Pennsylvania Senate today passed House Bill 1950, a piece of drilling legislation that establishes impact fees on shale gas drilling, but at the same time reduces the ability of municipalities to control the activities of drillers. Opponents say the annual fees — which start at $40,000 for unconventional/fracking wells — are among the lowest in the country, and are a pittance compared with the environmental remediation costs (not to mention the cost of importing water). Given that the fees are also tied to the cost of gas, which of course declines as production soars, chances are those fees won't get all that much higher.
Opponents also say that the inability of municipalities to protect themselves could be devastating.Striking down municipal controls — the patchwork of zoning and community meetings that have become among the biggest challenges and most significant causes of delays the gas industry faces — would be a huge victory for the industry. In short, the industry and its supporters effectively played the tax card to get the legislative changes they needed.
Five Philly Senators were among the "no" votes. Anthony Williams and Vincent Hughes were among the supporters. The House is expected to vote as soon as tonight on the matter.
As Delaware Riverkeeper Maya Van Rossum told CP last year as all this was in the works: "The drillers are very much behind [the tax and fee debates]. They know darn well that while everyone’s focusing on getting money out of the drilling company they’re not focusing on the level of devastation and harm that happens from the drilling process, and are not focusing on putting in place the regulations and gathering the science that’s needed to protect communities from drilling.... The problem is it’s not OK to sacrifice our water, to sacrifice our air, to sacrifice our communities to get a little bit of money."
- ActiVman
- adventures
- Arts
- Ask A Man-About-Town
- Award Tour
- Awards
- Bad Idea Factory
- Beer
- Below the Curve
- Bikes
- Booze
- Brian Hickey
- BRT
- Budget
- Budget Fuss
- Business
- Casinos
- City Council
- City Hall
- CouncilMANIC
- CP Abroad
- CP in the Community
- Criminal Justice System
- Day Tripper
- Death and Taxes
- Delaware River
- Design
- DROP
- Drugs
- Dubious Distinction
- Elections
- End of Days
- Environment
- Fashion
- Film Fest
- Financial Meltdown
- FrackTrack
- Free Library
- Gambling
- Gay Stuff
- Get Lit
- Greenstorming
- guns
- Hall Monitor
- Health
- Health Care
- Hello, Kitty
- Holidays
- Ice Cubes
- Iggles
- Immigration
- In Memoriam
- Labor
- Lawsuits
- Letters
- LGBTQ
- Maps
- Marcellus Shale
- Media
- MMA
- Mummers
- Music
- MUST READ
- Mysterious Mysteries
- Nation
- News
- Non Sequitur
- Opinion
- PA politics 2010
- Parking Wars
- Parks and Recreation
- People Send Us This Stuff
- Philadelphia Police
- Philadelphia Union
- Philaphemera
- Philly From Scratch
- philly madness
- Photos
- Poverty
- PPA
- President Obama
- Print Edition
- Prisons
- Protest
- Readers Write
- Real Estate
- Rock Bottom
- Schools
- Science
- Screwing Philly
- SEPTA
- snow
- So Lush
- Soccer
- Sporting Life
- Sports Complex
- State Politicians
- State Politics
- Street Art
- Strike
- Stuff We Like
- Taxes
- Taxi Drivers
- Tech Fetish
- television
- The Budget Crisis
- The City Paper
- The CLOG
- The Human Condition
- The Mayor
- The Phightin Phils
- The World
- Things that make you go hm
- Tinfoil Hats Off
- Under the Table
- Under the Tables
- Urban Development
- Urban Planning
- urban wildlife
- Video Poker
- We Call Shenanigans
- Weather
- Web Junk
- Weekend Omnibus
- White House
- What We've Found
- Women's Issues
- Flyered Up!
- How 'Bout That Weather?
- it's always sunny in philadelphia
- Stu!
- Shopping
- get out
- 10-track mind
- ArtsFlash
- Bloggity
- Bruce Being Bruce
- Colleges
- Comedy
- Gigantic Surprises
- Hello Canary
- Hello Puppy
- errata
- get lost
- Inside The Fishbowl
- Library Closings
- Local Support
- Movies
- Murder
- Night Moves
- Recycling
- radio
- Scientology
- Sex
- Sixers
- Skeeze Police
- State Politicians Screwing Philly
- That's a cool stencil!
- Theater
- Things We See
- This Week
- This Week in Oates
- University City
- WIN
- What we don't heart
- trailer!
- what we heart
- Feeling Guilty
- Askadelphia.
- Broke in Philly
- Contest
- Dance
- Dear Paper Doll
- Do A Good Thing
- Education
- Film Fest Schism
- G20-20 Vision
- Goodbye
- Gossip
- Great American Heroes
- PATCO
- Pearl Jam Week
- Puppy
- Stars of the Photostream
- sustainability
- Lower Merion Webcam-Gate
- The Cycle
- Equality Forum
- Bureaucrat of the Week
- Animals
- ElectionEar
- Photostream
