Gas drilling, proposed severance tax on gas are issues in race for governor of Pennsylvania

We have reported frequently on the effort to get natural gas from the Marcellus Shale, a rock formation that stretches from Ohio to New York and across two-thirds of Pennsylvania. The formation is believed to hold the largest untapped natural gas reserves in the United States. John Gramlich of Stateline.org explores the political implications of drilling, the upcoming election in Pennsylvania and the possible outcomes. (Map of Marcellus Shale)

Political contributions by the gas industry in Pennsylvania have gone up as lawmakers there have debated placing a severance tax on gas, reports Gramlich. The industry has spent more than $7 million in combined campaign donations and lobbying expenses to state politicians, which have tripled in the last three years. The Republican nominee for governor, Tom Corbett, is opposed to the severance tax and received $284,000 from natural gas drillers last year. The Democratic nominee, Dan Onorato, is a severance tax supporter and received only $59,000 from drillers.

“There’s no one here who doesn’t have an opinion about it,” says Fritz Mayer, editor of The River Reporter, a local weekly newspaper whose entire staff now covers the drilling beat. The paper’s circulation has risen because of intense interest in the debate, Mayer said to Gramlich. In an effort to win over the public, the gas industry has "taken out full-page newspaper advertisements promising an economic revival for a Rust Belt state known for played-out coal mines and long-shuttered steel plants," reports Gramlich.

The Delaware River Basin Commission has so far refused to allow drilling to commence. "At issue for the commission is whether natural gas drilling — and particularly a commonly used technique known as 'hydraulic fracturing' — will contaminate local drinking water supplies, which happen to include those for many of the East Coast’s biggest urban areas," according to Gramlich. (Read more)

The Obama administration has decided to stay out of efforts to block Marcellus drilling, reports Mike Soraghan of Environment & Energy Daily. Brig. Gen. Peter "Duke" DeLuca, commander of the North Atlantic Division of the Army Corps of Engineers, last week declined a request from Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) to use DeLuca's vote on the Basin Commission to seek a temporary ban on gas production in the watershed. DeLuca was unwilling to wait on the DRBC's cumulative impact statement saying that could delay drilling for years. (Read more, subscription required)