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COLUMN |
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State
Rep. Edward G. Staback |
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Beware of continued threat from gas industry, budget to raid state forests
by state Rep. Ed Staback
I am deeply concerned over the language included in a Senate-passed fiscal code bill that could put at risk the state’s public forest system.
We all agree that our state forest is an unmatched asset for wildlife and plant populations, for quality water supplies and for outdoor recreation. With more and more land becoming suburban home sites and retail centers, these forests are more vital than ever.
As others have pointed out during this debate, the estimated value of hunting, fishing and wildlife watching to Pennsylvania’s economy is well over $5 billion. A large part of those activities occur on state forest land. Drilling in substantially more of these lands will change the nature of tens of thousands of acres that are vital to wildlife and are now enjoyed by the outdoor community.
New roads full of heavy machinery, extensive pipelines cutting through old growth forests and infrastructure construction such as processing plants, compression facilities, water storage units and drilling structures, some 60 to 70 feet high, will all become too common.
Where a hunter or hiker could once go to enjoy the outdoors, the sounds and sights will be greatly different. Up until now, the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources has sought to balance the use of the state forest resource, whether through tourism, timber or other resource management decisions.
If reports are accurate, DCNR would be required to lease at a much faster pace, meaning there will be many more clear cuts, there will be a series of platforms built, and there will be a system of roads and pipelines cut into the landscape.
Living in the northeast, every day I see the remnants of the rush to get natural resources out of the ground. Some of the very same dangers exist for drilling for natural gas as do for coal mining, especially relating to clean water and reclaiming land after the work is done.
Given the current prices for natural gas, the level of drilling necessary to meet reported revenue projections could have a devastating impact on our state woodlands.
It’s a bad time for what I believe is a bad idea.
By rejecting a fair and common extraction tax, we miss out on a revenue source that would recover hundreds of millions of dollars through the next five years.
Pennsylvania should be like other states who insist that when natural resources are taken out of the land, public investments are put back into the surrounding communities.
Also, with a severance tax, much less drilling on public lands would be needed to reach any projected revenues. Simply put, I believe the less disruption to our state's forests – the better.
With tax revenues coming in from the wells, there would be no need for a total sell-off of state forest lands to drillers. More land would be spared, leaving them wild and with no need to be reclaimed.
Presently there are 660,000 acres leased for drilling. How much more does there need to be, given what is lost with each new contract?
The manner in which residential and commercial development is taking place in more rural areas today could make our state forest lands and state game lands, in years to come, the last haven for plant and wildlife to continue to thrive.
These lands must be protected.