From Pennsylvanians Against Fracking (https://paagainstfracking.org/):
The Pennsylvania legislature has been guilty of over-reach and pandering to gas industry interests in the past (Act 13 comes to mind), but the current amendments to House Bills 542 (Tax Code), 453 (Fiscal Code), 118 (Administrative) by the Senate are so egregiously and transparently gifts to the gas industry and other polluters, that words fail. However, one does come to mind— “unconstitutional.”
On July 27, the Pennsylvania Senate approved a pack of Budget bills that will deprive Pennsylvanians of any vestige of DEP protection from corporate polluters left to them, while -violating Article 1, Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution that guarantees our right to clean air, pure water, and the integrity of the environment for ourselves and for future generations. One wonders if this is a cynical attempt to do an end run around the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision rendered on June 20 that strengthened the Constitutions environmental rights clause.
How bad are these bills for putting fracking profits above the health and safety of people? Among the worst provisions, in exchange for a paltry severance tax on natural gas ranging from 1.5 to 3.5 cents per mcf, they would:
- Farm out the DEP’s permitting process to industry-picked private consultants. What could go wrong there?
- Guarantee drillers automatic permit approval if an application is not acted upon within a shortened time, regardless of the sufficiency of the application. Plus, the driller will get its application fee refunded if the insufficiency requires extended review. We could argue that the DEP needs the fees, but the fees would be directed to the third party reviewers.
- Transfer the review of air quality permits to a special panel, the Air Quality Permit Advisory Committee, chosen primarily by the legislature, co-opting the methane emissions control proposed by the DEP.
- Allow dumping mine and fracking waste into streams.
- Reallocate $6 million from the PA Building Program to the Natural Gas Pipeline Fund.
- Alter, to industry’s benefit, how royalties are paid during temporary cessation of oil and gas wells.
The budget is overdue but these provisions would be a disaster for our citizens and the climate. This is no way to fix a budget.
Please contact your State Representatives today and tell them these are really bad ideas and you want them to vote against them. We need to move quickly and let them know we are watching and will hold them accountable. You can contact your legislatures by clicking on one of the links of our coalition members below.
- Contact your Representative: find contact information at http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/findyourlegislator/index.cfm#address.
- Send Gov. Wolf and your Representative a message via Food and Water Watch.
- Call 1-888-997-5202 to get connected with your Representative.
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