Governor Corbett Announces Impact Fee for Marcellus Shale Plans

On Monday, Governor Tom Corbett announced his plans to implement numerous recommendations of the Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission, including changes to enhance environmental standards, an impact fee, and a plan to help move Pennsylvania toward energy independence.

Corbett’s impact fee would be adopted by counties for use by local communities experiencing the actual impacts of the drilling. Each well would be subject to a fee of up to $40,000 in the first year, $30,000 in the second year, $20,000 in the third year and $10,000 in the fourth through tenth years, adding up to a potential total of $160,000 per well.

The impact fee revenues would be split with 75 percent being retained at the local level. The remaining 25 percent of the fee would be divided, with 70 percent of that number going to PennDOT for road, bridge, rail and other transportation infrastructure maintenance and repair within counties hosting Marcellus natural gas development.

Corbett made his announcement during a tour of the Greater Pennsylvania Regional Council of Carpenters’ Training Center in Pittsburgh with Congressman Tim Murphy. During his visit, the governor spoke with representatives from a number of unions and contractors about their efforts to ensure Pennsylvania workers are trained to fill the new jobs coming to the state from the natural gas industry. CAWP President Chuck Niederriter and CAWP Executive Director Rich Barcaskey participated in those discussions.