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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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State
Rep. Tony Payton, Jr.
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Payton opposes expanded natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania state forests
HARRISBURG, March 10 – State Rep. Tony Payton Jr., D-Phila., joined a group of lawmakers and environmental and sportsman’s organizations at Capitol news conference Tuesday to oppose a proposal to generate revenue for the 2010-11 budget by leasing out additional Pennsylvania state forest land in the Marcellus Shale region for natural gas drilling.
"Many Philadelphians use the state park system as a close escape from the city's concrete and asphalt," Payton said. "State parks are family vacation spots, destinations for youth groups to take kids on retreats, and a quiet environment for people who enjoy the outdoors. The damage that would be done to this land would be extensive and is not worth the short-term revenue that it would produce.
"Even though my district is in North and Northeast Philadelphia, I still
have concerns about families living in rural Pennsylvania affected by this
drilling," Payton added. "At the end of the day, we're all
Pennsylvanians and the state forest is our asset to protect."
The Marcellus Shale is a rock formation that underlies approximately two-thirds of Pennsylvania and portions of the states of New York and West Virginia at a depth of 5,000 to 8,000 feet. It is believed to hold trillions of cubic feet of natural gas. It has long been considered prohibitively expensive to access, but recent advances in drilling technology and rising natural gas prices have attracted new interest in this previously untapped formation.
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