Growing Greener Coalition: Impact Fee Must Include Statewide Environmental Programs
The Renew Growing Greener Coalition Tuesday issued the following statement from Executive Director Andrew Heath in response to Gov. Corbett's announcement last week that he will support an impact fee on natural gas drilling.
"We are pleased that the Corbett administration has said it will back an impact fee on Marcellus Shale drilling and that the Governor has specifically referenced the need to fund "environmental cleanup."
"But the devil is in the details.
"Without doubt, production and distribution of natural gas causes immediate and long-term environmental damage. Water and air pollution from construction and operations impact the communities where drilling occurs, but they also have impacts well beyond the Marcellus region, as pollution does not respect county or municipal boundaries.
"Likewise the impacts of truck traffic and pipelines have statewide impacts. The loss of public access to large areas of public forest, the damage to wildlife habitat, the conversion of productive farmland and the impending harm to the scenic and recreational quality of our state parks hurt every Pennsylvanian.
"Therefore, the Coalition strongly urges the Governor and legislature to use a significant portion of the revenues to restore funding for the state's award-winning Growing Greener program to offset the conservation, recreation and environmental impacts that will be felt across the Commonwealth. Click Here to read more…
