At the time of publication, Governor Tom Corbett has yet to decide whether he will sign the $29.1 billion budget passed by the Pennsylvania General Assembly. If you care about our state's land, air, and water, there are a host of reasons why this budget is short-sighted and harmful.
Among the most serious concerns: It balances the budget on the back of public lands by expanding gas leasing of state forests, and contains the first-ever Marcellus gas leasing of state parks.
The budget poses substantial risks to some of the state’s best economic and recreational assets: Our state parks and forests. It further enriches the gas industry, rather than asking it to pay its fair share in the form of a drilling tax -- a measure that exists in every other major gas-producing state.
In May, Governor Corbett lifted a moratorium on the leasing of public lands for natural gas drilling and proposed generating $75 million in new lease revenue from fracking our parks and forests. The state legislature took the Governor’s bad idea and made it worse – upping the ante to $95 million in its own budget.
Just as concerning, the choice to lease state parks for gas drilling could help unleash a significant amount of unconventional gas development on the doorstep of our State Parks above and beyond what is proposed by the Corbett administration and the General Assembly.
And here's why: Because the Commonwealth does not control 80 percent of the mineral rights under state parks, many of our parks have been wide open to unconventional gas drilling. So why, then, have we not seen gas development in our state parks or on their doorstep as a means to access the gas under the parks? Because gas companies understand the affinity that Pennsylvanians have for our state parks and the likely public relations debacle that would ensue if development was pursued.
But if the Commonwealth reverses long-standing policy, and brings development to the doorstep of state parks, what will these companies and other subsurface rights owner do?
It is logical to assume that many of these companies, with the Commonwealth leading the way, will argue that what is good for the goose is good for the gander and proceed to develop their gas rights under state parks.
Some of our most iconic parks such as Ohiopyle and Ricketts Glen lie above the Marcellus shale. Do Pennsylvania families want to forever alter some of our most beloved parks? Will we want to picnic within the rumble of trucks and heavy equipment? Do we want to go hiking in sight of drilling rigs and compressor stations?
Andrew Sharp is PennFuture's Director of Outreach and is based in Philadelphia. He tweets @RexBainbridge.
