Citizens Marcellus Shale Commission plan differs from governor's

Tuesday, 25 October 2011 16:11

Citizens Marcellus Shale Commission plan differs from governor's

Written by Scott LaMar, Director of Radio Smart Talk

Radio Smart Talk for Wednesday, October 26:

Earlier this month, Gov.Tom Corbett outlined his Marcellus Shale natural gas plan that included an impact fee on drillers, new regulations and tougher penalities for violators. The governor's proposal was based on recommendations made by the Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission that he appointed. As often happens when Marcellus Shale is the issue, there were those critical of Corbett's plan and especially the Commission, saying it included too many representatives from the natural gas industry and not enough to look out for the environment.

This week another group - the Citizens Marcellus Shale Commission released their own recommendations that includes an extraction tax on drillers as well as giving local governments the ability to assess property taxes on the value of oil and gas reserves. The Citizens group's proposals focus more on environmental issues than fiscal ones.

Two members of the Citizens Marcellus Shale Commission will appear on Wednesday's radio Smart Talk to discuss their plan and where they think Gov. Corbett's proposal needs to be improved.

Listen to the program:

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# Jim 2011-10-26 09:12

If the Governor's impact fee proposal is enacted, Pennsylvania will be the only state with significant Marcellus resources that doesn't have a severance tax. This includes some pretty low tax states like Texas and Oklahoma. This will mean that PA will be the "Ollies" of the natural gas industry - the state that gives away a precious non-renewable resource at discount prices. I have nothing against Ollies; I actually shop there. But is this the best policy for our state, given our tremendous need to fund things like our infrastructure?

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# Jeremy 2011-10-26 09:21

How many citizens of heavily drilled areas sit on your commission? Do any municipal officials sit on your commission?

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# Thomas Au 2011-10-26 11:15

There are 8-9 members of the Citizens Commission who live in drilled areas. The commissioners are listed on pages 84-86 of the full report. You can access the report at CitizensMarcell usShale.com

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# Helen 2011-10-26 10:01

Scientific American November 2011 on page 80 has an article titled "the truth about fracking". I have only started reading the hard copy of the article but it is probably free online. National Geographic has several articles on the effects as does Sci. Amer. We borrow the land from our children at least 7 generations hence. The first people to claim that we should not borrow money to be paid back by our grandchildren are Republicons, yet destroying the land, flora and fauna is just as OK as destroying the grasslands and buffaloe of the 19th century American West.

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# Thomas Au 2011-10-26 11:19

Yes, ScientificAmeri can has been doing some fine work in this field. The Commission's report makes reference to the editorial published on Oct. 19, 2011: "Safety First, Fracking Second".

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# Curtis Brown 2011-10-29 09:14

There is a solution to the water problem
the technology is out there, Ecosphere Technologies claims to clean 80 barrels of water a minute at what cost I dont know but its worth looking at.

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