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Archive: February, 2010
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Yesterday, as you might have heard, Governor Ed Rendell announced that he would, after all, support a tax on gas drilling in Pennsyvlania.
What you didn't hear was that he's also considering authorizing the third leasing of state forest for drilling in three years.
Yesterday, the Gov's press office confirmed to CP a rumor circulating Harrisburg that Governor Rendell is considering unilaterally directing the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) to lease more state forest land for drilling in the Marcellus Shale, a rock formation covering much of PA and which contains billions of dollars worth of natural gas.
By law, the leasing of state forest for oil and/or gas activities has been at the sole discretion of the Secretary of DCNR. And, for more than fifty years, state law has required that the proceeds of any such leasing go directly to conservation â specifically to the Oil and Gas Lease Fund.
This year, for the first time in Pennsylvania history, the legislature and governor â hungry for a slice of the booming activity surrounding gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale â raided that pot and overrode the DCNR Secretary's authority to decide when, where, and how much to lease. They included in the 2009 budget that required DCNR to raise $60 million from leasing to drillers.
It was the first time DCNR been required to lease land to meet a set financial goal; and the first time forest lease proceeds been redirected wholesale to the state's general fund and away from conservation.
It also seemed to ignore warnings from former DCNR Secretary Michael DiBerardinis, who wrote in May that too much leasing would "scar the economic, scenic, ecological and recreational values of the forest," and that "a rush to drill threatens the certification of our state forests as sustainably managed."
This point â that further leasing could pose threats to the long-term stability and quality of our forests â will have to be explored further in later posts. But it's worth noting here that both former Secretary DiBerardinis and acting Secretary John Quigley have both voiced concerns over the possible impact of further leasing. In May, for example, Quigley wrote in a memo to the governor's office that
"This would likely be the last gas lease sales on State Forest land that we could manage within the context of our sustainable certification for the foreseeable future . . . DCNR remains very apprehensive about the leasing of additional forest land."
Fully one-third of state forest has already been leased for drilling â and while only four Marcellus Shale wells are currently active on that land, the state expects as many as a thousand or more over the next decade. We haven't, in other words, even begun to see how drilling on state forest may play out.
Today's news â that the Governor intends to do it again, and without bothering with the legislature â confirms environmentally-minded legislators recent fears.
For several weeks, rumor had been that legilsators were going to insert language into the coming 2010-2011 budget that would require the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to lease, for the third time in three years, more forest land for drilling â this time $180 million worth.
Environmentally-minded legislators (so-called Green Dogs) planned to fight this clause.
On Monday, though, a new rumor was afloat: the Governor would simply require DCNR to lease the land himself, without the legislature, and he might do it soon.
"He could do it tomorrow," Rep Greg Vitali (D-Delaware), who is sponsoring a bill that would impose a moratorium on further leasing of state forest for drilling, told CP on Monday.
Indeed. Rendell spokesman Gary Tuma confirmed yesterday that the Governor was considering authorizing another lease himself:
As things now stand, he would have the authority to do so in the 2010-11 budget year, and yes he would consider doing it because it was part of the two-year agreement with the legislature.
That last bit, the idea that further leasing "was part of the two-year agreement with the legislature," is disputed.
In fact, Mr. Tuma originally told City Paper that the $180 million sale had been written into law already. When CP pointed out this wasn't the case, Mr. Tuma wrote back that:
There was a very clear and very public agreement in October that the Governor and the legislature had jointly agreed on a plan to balance the budget for two years, and that $180 million from leasing in 2010-11 was part of that.
Tuma did not respond to CP's question of where, exactly, this "clear and very public agreement" had been publicized.
Rep. Vitali directly disputes this claim. "The opposite is true," he told CP today. He and several other Green Dogs, he said, had been aware of the legislature's and governor's intention to include more leasing in the budget but opposed it.
"We negotiated and the negotiated agreement was that for 2009-2010, there would be $60 million in leasing. There was no agreement with regard to 2010-2011, simply no agreement."
Representative David Levdansky (D-Allegheny, Washington) agrees:
"We insisted that they take year two off the table, and they did," he told CP today. "If the governor's claiming otherwise, it's not accurate and it's just an effort to double-cross us."
"I supported Ed Rendell when he ran against the real Bob Casey in 1986. I supported him when he ran against young Bob Casey. I've been his legislative ally on every major policy. But the governor is dead wrong on this. He's a city slicker â he doesn't understand that a century-old state forest system is a treasure of the Commonwealth."
Stay tuned for updates on the Clog. Tips are always welcome.
"only four Marcellus Shale wells are currently active on that land"... I'm not sure how current that info is - as we speak there are more than 4 active wells on state forest land here in Tioga County alone...
This man continues to break the Social Contract to fuel his own ambition and cronyism. He needs $137mn to give to his rich corporate friends in Philly for another twisted idea, The Barnes On The Parkway Project, which guts another iconic landmark in a public/private conspiracy (I mean partnership) with wealthy special interests that obviously have way too much money and should be taxed more severely. Rendell should have stuck to scrubbing urinals in Philly because his conscience has apparently never left the gutter. The Barnes Belongs in Merion. 322 days to January 1, 2011.
[...] Secretary Michael DiBerardinis cautioned Rendell against leasing forest. A few days ago, we reported (and the Inquirer re-reports today) that Governor Rendell is considering authorizing yet another [...]
Great to see you getting on board the Marcellus coverage, Isaiah. Just to clear the record, the Inquirer reported on Oct. 2 about the existence of the $180 million budget deal, and AP and the Inquirer ran items on the deal in early January. Also, here's a press release Penn Environment issued on Oct. 14:
Budget Dramatically Shifts Resources From Environmental Protection, Natural Resource Conservation
LENGTH: 969 words
DATELINE: HARRISBURG, Pa., Oct. 14
Pennsylvania Is Selling Off Natural Resources to Balance the Budget
HARRISBURG, Pa., Oct. 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Cuts and diversions in the budget just adopted by the state have dramatically reduced spending for environmental and natural resource programs in Pennsylvania by $347 million in just one year according to Donald S. Welsh, President & CEO of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council.
"The unprecedented 26 percent cut in the Department of Environmental Protection and 18 percent cut in Department of Conservation and Natural Resources budgets raise significant doubts about the capacity of both agencies to fulfill their missions," said Welsh. "Environmental programs for some reason seem to have been singled out for cuts that go way beyond the average 9 percent suffered by other agencies."
The General Fund budget of DEP was cut $58 million, or 26.7 percent, with most of the cuts coming in line items used to fund staff positions. Over 300 positions are at risk of being eliminated as a result of these cuts.
DCNR's General Fund budget was cut $21 million, or 18.5 percent, with again many of the cuts coming in personnel line items. There are about 160 positions at risk of being eliminated at DCNR.
"Of great concern is the diversion of $234 million from the Oil and Gas Fund to the General Fund that was earmarked for improving recreation and access to our State Parks and Forests," said Welsh. "Taking the proceeds from mineral rights sales away from conservation programs erases 55 years of precedent in Pennsylvania."
$174 million was transferred from the Oil and Gas Fund to balance to 2008-09 budget, and $60 million is to be transferred to balance the 2009-10 budget. Another $180 million is set to be used from the Fund to balance the 2010-11 budget, as well.
"Adding to these diversions is the requirement in the budget to lease thousands of acres of State Forest land for Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling to raise the money needed for the diversions," said Welsh. "It is a sad day for the Commonwealth when we are selling off our natural resources to balance the budget."
A bill accompanying the budget requires the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to lease as many acres as necessary to yield $60 million in revenue to balance the budget. There is no cap on the acres to be leased or a minimum bid price. This provision of the budget would have been even more destructive had it not been for the leadership of a bi-partisan coalition of House members who vigorously fought to protect state lands from unmitigated extraction.
"These cuts are bad enough on their own, however, they are only the latest in a series of cuts or diversions over the last several years," said Welsh. "Funds for watershed restoration, abandoned mine reclamation, wastewater plant operations, storage tank cleanup, diversions from the Keystone Recreation, Parks and Conservation Fund and more have all gone to balance the budget."
Here is the list of cuts and diversions over the last seven years:
$376 million in Act 339 grants intended to support wastewater plant operations were eliminated to balance the budget;$174 million diverted from the DCNR Oil and Gas Fund to balance the 2008-09 budget;$79 million cut from the DEP and DCNR General Fund budget during 2009-10 fiscal year;$60 million diverted from the DCNR Oil and Gas Fund to balance the 2009-10 budget;$100 million in 2002 from the Underground Storage Tank cleanup insurance fund to balance the budget (although this is slowly being repaid over 10 years);$52.7 million "one-time" diversion from the Keystone Recreation, Parks and Conservation Fund in 2006 to balance the budget;$50 million in 2007 and 2008 from the Environmental Stewardship Fund, which supports mine reclamation and watershed restoration, to fund the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Program because there was no agreement on how to fund that program;$50 million in 2007 and 2008 from the Environmental Stewardship Fund to pay debt service on the Growing Greener II bond issue and taking funding away from restoration projects each year for the next 25 years - reflecting a pattern of only environmental programs being required to address their own bond debt service;$15 million from the Recycling Fund in to balance the 2008-09 budget;$18.4 million put into budgetary reserve in 2008-09 from the Department of Environmental Protection and Department of Conservation and Natural Resources; $5and million reduction in Resource Enhancement and Protection (REAP) farm conservation tax credit program in FY 2009-10.
"Before last week's budget was adopted, we were already below the point of providing sufficient funding for environmental and conservation programs; programs that protect public health, rebuild our communities, and sustain our state's quality of life," said Welsh. "It's time to stop ignoring the need for additional, long-term revenue sources like a natural gas severance tax. Without rebuilding adequate investment, we cannot hope to meet our legal obligations to cleanup our air and water or take care of the natural resources in our public trust."
The Pennsylvania Environmental Council promotes the protection and restoration of the natural and built environments through innovation, collaboration, education and advocacy with the private sector, government, individuals and communities as partners to improve the quality of life for all Pennsylvanians.
The Council was founded in 1970 and serves the entire state through offices in Meadville, Franklin, Wilkes-Barre, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg and Philadelphia. For more information visit www.pecpa.org or call 717-230-8044.
Contact:
Donald S. Welsh
President & CEO, PEC
717-230-8044 ext. 16
SOURCE Pennsylvania Environmental CouncilTo clarify the record: Thanks, Enviro Guy: the Inquirer did indeed report the $180 in October and January. The "new" news is this: that Rendell is considering authorizing the lease without waiting for legislative approval to transfer funds from the Oil and Gas Lease Fund; and that "Green Dog" House Democrats dispute the idea (as reported in the October Inky) that there was any such $180 deal in place when they voted in the 2009-2010 budget. Tioga Gas Watch: Are you sure? Give me call. Thanks to all for input and clarifications always.
This is the best news that I have heard since the last time they sold mineral rights. Ed is a very smart man and has the best intrest for OUR state in mind. DRILL DRILL DRILL JOBS JOBS JOBS
Do I need to shovel my roof?
I live in south philly and theres a part of my roof that's flat, and it has leaked in the past a tiny bit when it absolutely pours. With all this snow, should I go out and shovel the roof? Nobody else seems to be doing it, but then again, my neighbors are slobs. What say ye?
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Yes, we're snow-bound and going a little stir crazy and channeling Arlo Guthrie when we tell you that, as per the Inky's Angela Couloumbis and Paul Nussbaum, the state is shutting down 76, 676 and 476.
SEPTA stopped running most of its bus routes starting at 1 p.m. and the state is closing the Schuylkill Expressway, the Vine Street Expressway and the Blue Route at 2 p.m.
Gov. Rendell said I-95 and the Pennslvania Turnpike will remain open with restrictions for some vehicles on the Turnpike.
In other words, hunker down, there is no escape!
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| cover illustration | Thomas Pitilli |
Back in January, when City Paper published its annual writing contest issue featuring the fiction of Jessica Penzias ("Death by Oboe") and poetry of Sean Webb ("The Bridge"), we set Feb. 10 as the date for our winners reading, figuring blizzard season was over. How silly we were.
It should come as no surprise that this evening's scheduled reading with Penzias, Webb, fiction judge Elise Juska, poetry judge Thomas Devaney and CP senior editor Patrick Rapa at the Tin Angel in Old City, has been POSTPONED.
City Paper, Tin Angel and the readers are working to reschedule for an upcoming Tuesday evening, so please stay tuned here and to the event's Facebook page for updates.
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Throughout the day, The Clog has been told that nearly everything in the city that was going to take place today and tomorrow — school, flights, concerts — has been canceled. Except the Tea Party Candidates Forum, that is. According to the folks over at the Crystal Tea Room (100 E. Penn Square, ninth floor, 215-627-5100), "the Republican thing" (their words, not ours) is still going on tonight.
It's free and open to the public.
Where's the best sledding hill in Philly?
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This morning the Pew Charitable Trust released its second annual megasurvey of Philadelphians. You can read the DN's account of it here, or just download the survey for yourself here. The top lines, of course, are the headline-grabbers:
Nutter's approve/disapprove is at 53/32, up from 47/39 last April. 60 percent say they have a very or somewhat favorable impression of him, which, all in all, is a pretty good place for an incumbent mayor who just weathered the Great Recession and skyrocketing unemployment to be in. At the very least, it should be enough to give second thoughts to any potential challengers. (Pew didn't do a partisan breakdown, however; if he does get a viable challenge in 2011, it will almost certainly be from a Democrat in the May primary; his weakness — as the Pew people tell me it's always been — is among African-Americans and the less educated, two demographic groups that are well represented among Dems. Also, it's worth noting that, because Pew does not consider this a political poll, this poll questions Philadelphians at large, rather than registered or likely voters.)
City Council scores pretty well, too: A 42/34 approve/disapprove, again up a bit from last year. Police Commissioner Ramsey may well be the most popular guy in the city. He banks a 69/11 spread — apparently, he's getting the credit for the declining murder rate. Nobody knows much about school superintendent Arlene Ackerman: her approve/disapprove/don't know is 29/20/51. I'm surprised that her handling of the racially charged South Philly High School incidents, in which black kids were beating up Asian kids, hasn't hurt her more, considering how unknown of a quantity she is.
Much to my colleague Isaiah Thompson's dismay, I'm sure, casinos and table games both score well. 51 percent approve of casinos, to 34 percent opposed; 54 percent approve of table games, to 32 percent opposed (you read that right: more people support table games than casinos). So, backroom deals and all, it looks like most people are resigned to, if not excited by, the casinos' presence. I'm on a conference call with the Pew people now, and a DN guy just asked about this: "What's been going down is the number of people who disapprove," one of the Pew reps responded. In other words, the approval numbers have stayed steady, but the opposition has softened.
Oh, and the Streets Department sucks: While respondents seemed OK with library service (58 percent gave the library high marks) and the cops (52/45 in favor), the question of "street repair and maintenance" elicited a bit of ire: Only 28 percent rated Streets' services as "excellent or good," to 72 percent who think they are fair or poor. This degree of unhappiness is matched only on the question of whether the city has enough programs for teens: By a 28/54 margin, the respondents said no.
The cross-tabs yield some interesting results, too. At first blush, the fact that Nutter, who is black, does better among the city's whites than among blacks would seem counter-intuitive: Among whites, he gets a 65/21 approval; among blacks, however, he breaks even, 43/43. That said, Nutter has improved his position among blacks considerably since Pew's last survey, in April 2009 at the height of the city's budget war. Then, only 36 percent of blacks approved of his job performance, versus 54 percent who didn't.
Since Day One, Nutter's strength la largely with well-educated whites, and that's where he performs best now. He gets 62 percent support of those with a college degree, as well as 62 percent support from those making more than $100,000. Curiously, Nutter gets his best marks (59 percent) from the northeast, as well as those over 65 years old (65 percent). That said, except for the black cohort, he gets positive approval ratings across all income, demographic and regional groups.
People like Nutter. His economic policies, not quite so much. Overall, only 47 percent express confidence in his ability to handle the budget, to 46 percent who aren't confident. There's a 47/49 disapproval of his sales tax increase, which, statistically, is a tie. Here again, whites, better educated and wealthier people tend to favor the tax hike; blacks and Hispanics, those with less education and poorer people disapprove, which isn't terribly surprising, given that sales taxes are the most regressive taxes imaginable. At the same time, however, blacks tend to favor a more tax-and-spend approach to city governance, by a 45/39 margin. Whites (39/43) and Hispanics (32/49) lean toward lower taxes and service cuts.
So what does it all mean? With a broad brush, I'd say Nutter weathered the storm. His base among educated whites has held, and his standing among blacks is getting better. To be honest, any tax hike that breaks-even in these polls is a rare thing; people always hate tax hikes, even when they want more services. And given the economic shitstorm of the last year, the fact that he's close to even on any budget-related matters has to be a win. If Nutter survives the next round of budget wars, and the pending union negotiations, politically intact, I'd say he's a pretty solid bet for reelection. The caveat is how differently the people who will show up to vote next May will see things from those who answered their phone for Pew.
Pew says another batch of survey data is coming out later this month, on crime and the general mood of the city. We'll update then.
[...] Post By Google News Click Here For The Entire Article Increase Credit Score- Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where [...]
[...] Post By Google News Click Here For The Entire Article Increase Credit Score- Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where [...]
Interesting survey. Thanks for spotlighting it. Pew's own write-up makes the rather bizarre assertion that "In 2009, the key budget decision made by Mayor Nutter and City Council (in concert with the state legislature and the governor) was to raise the sales tax in Philadelphia." Funny, I thought the key budget decision was to pass a city budget (sales tax hike included) that depended on agreements from Harrisburg that were not in place, and then to swan off on summer recess without a Plan B. For months last summer and fall, both the state and the city failed to negotiate seriously to resolve either budget crisis. In the meantime, small businesses failed, services to poor and middle-class families were cut or disappeared, and nonprofits teetered on the edge of financial destruction. When an independently funded organization takes it upon itself to assess city officials' performance, it would be nice if that assessment didn't set the bar so low.
[...] a few weeks back when I broke down the Pew Charitable Trust's poll? Well, part 2 is out today, and it "shows that Philadelphians are optimistic about the city's [...]
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| Taylor Swift is a friend of CP Honor boxes. Now you can be, too! |
Hey City Paper readers,
We up here at the 123 are hunkering down — as are you, likely — for Snowpocalypse III: The Re-Re-Reckoning. But before we do, we're putting a paper out so you've got something hot and fresh to read over your snow-day French Toast.
Of course, Mark Burkert and our team of incredibly intrepid drivers, can only get the papers into your local honor box if they can get to the honor boxes. To this end, we're equipping them with shovels, but we ask that, if you have the time and elbow grease to spare, you help them and us as you dig out and rescue your local honor box. We're calling it our "adopt-a-box" program and it essentially goes like this: If you can find it in your heart to dig out a City Paper orange box, take a picture of it, e-mail it with your name and the box location to bhoward (at) citypaper (dot) net, and we'll post it on The Clog with your name and a digital gold star, and we'll invite you to the next CP happy hour (or, y 'know, show up at the Khyber at 5:30 on a Friday).
So doing this.
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| Courtesy of Accuweather |
Snowpocalypse III may now bring up to 20 inches!!!
Meanwhile, blizzard metaphors become more and more awesome.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Philly News Now, Yancey @YanceyG. Yancey @YanceyG said: From our favorite melodramatic forecasters â¦: Courtesy of Accuweather Snowpocalypse II may now bring up to ... http://bit.ly/9iDefb [...]
Where can I sell off a bunch of antiques fast?
It's a long story, but I have some jewelry, some vases, and some other stuff. I want to go sell them at a dealer and be rid of them. Any of you worked with a dealer you liked who gave what you felt were honest prices?
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Philly News Now, Yancey @YanceyG. Yancey @YanceyG said: Askadelphia. Question of the Day.: Andrew Thompson asks: Where can I sell off a bunch of antiques fast? It's a l... http://bit.ly/djfRoX [...]
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