Natural Gas NOW readers pass along a lot of stuff every week about natural gas, fractivist antics, emissions, renewables, and other news relating to energy.

Pennsylvania State Rep. Jonathan Fritz just announced more than $16,058,972 in impact fees from the natural gas industry will be disbursed to his district’s counties. He also points out Susquehanna County will the bulk of the money and Wayne County, “because of the prohibition on natural gas drilling, will receive a much smaller amount.” That is the key point, but there’s also the direct contradiction of Gov. Tom Wolf’s false claim the Commonwealth is the only gas-producing state without a severance tax.

Under Act 13 of 2012, impact fees are generated by the extraction of natural gas with a portion of those fees being directed back to the communities that host natural gas development.

For 2017, total impact fee collections topped $209 million, which will be disbursed across the Commonwealth. Since 2012, impact fee revenues have totaled $1.5 billion, and the statewide figures for 2017 represent a 21 percent increase over the previous year’s distribution dollars.

“Susquehanna County is the second-largest county producer of natural gas in the state, with 1,386 wells,” said Fritz. “Because the county has such high production, it receives substantial revenue in the way of impact fees. Wayne County, comparatively, receives a very small amount of restricted-use funds.

Impact fee revenues for 2017 resulted in Susquehanna County and its eligible municipalities receiving over $16 million dollars while Wayne County received $45,162…

“The $209 million in impact fees collected statewide in Pennsylvania for 2017 is more than the drilling taxes collected by West Virginia, Ohio, Arkansas and Colorado combined” said Fritz. “This clearly highlights why Pennsylvania does not need to place an additional severance tax on the industry. The economy is improving and impact fee collections are up; we need to help, not hinder, business growth in our state. Additional taxes are not the way to economic prosperity.”

Amen!

http://naturalgasnow.org/natural-gas-now-picks-week-june-23-2018/