To: The Pennsylvania State House
Vote No to Any Severance Tax for Fracking in PA
Karen Feridun
HB 218 and an alternative bill, SB 566, purporting to be part of a "People's Budget" contain provisions for a severance tax on shale gas extraction. Any severance tax would institutionalize fracking, something that was banned in New York to our north and Maryland to our south (with bipartisan support and the signature of a Republican governor) based on science and eyewitness observations of what is happening on the ground here. The methane that leaks from fracking at every point from well pad to distribution line is 86 times more potent a greenhouse gas than CO2 is in the handful of years we have left to deal with climate change and the ethane that is becoming big business in the state is also a greenhouse gas, it's a contributor to smog, the third biggest cause of warming after CO2 and methane, and it inhibits methane's ability to convert to CO2 in the atmosphere. Finally, more fracking means more pipelines, like the Mariner East 2, the latest pipeline failure to remind us of how dangerous this infrastructure is to communties on their path.
There is a side of the balance sheet you have not wanted to look at since fracking began. No amount of severance tax will ever pay for the damage being done to our health, safety, climate, and natural resources. A severance tax is the definition of a penny wise, pound foolish measure.
We have been fortunate to have never had our fate sealed with a severance tax on drilling. Do the right thing for all Pennsylvaians and keep it that way. Vote NO to any severance tax on shale gas development.
Why is this important?
The PA Senate passed a budget that devastates the environment and trades off DEP authority over fracking for a weak severance tax. An alternative has been proposed that calls itself a People's Budget that establishes a severance tax with no strings attached. Neither alternative is acceptable. We have been spared the institutionalization of fracking because we have no severance tax. Instead, we've had an impact fee that has been misappropriated, like the community that used impact fee dollars to bring an American Idol contestant to town for a concert. Seriously. http://www.paauditor.gov/press-releases/auditor-general-depasquale-says-gas-drilling-impact-fee-law-must-be-amended-to-clarify-spending-guidelines-improve-oversight
Harrisburg exists in a bubble immune from the more than 900 peer-reviewed studies that make a case for a ban, the science on climate change that could not be clearer at this point, and the impacts that have devastated communities. Governor Tom Wolf has done everything in his power to EXPAND the market for natural gas and ethane when reasonable public officials outside of the bubble are committing to transitioning away from all fossil fuels as quickly as possible. Don't be duped by the People's Budget alternative. A real People's Budget would contain real solutions to fund education and other important programs, not tie them to a boom/bust industry. Please sign the petition, share it, and then call your legislators to tell them to vote NO to any severance tax proposal.