The Candidates for PA Governor on Natural Gas Drilling and the Environment

	Joe Hoeffel	Dan Onorato	Jack Wagner	Tony Williams	Tom Corbett	Sam Rohrer
Supports a severance tax on natural gas	YES	YES	PARTIAL SUPPORT	YES	NO	NO
... with revenue dedicated to restoring full funding to Dept of Environmental Protection?	YES	YES	NO	YES	NO	NO
... to renewing Growing Greener to protect open spaces and farmland?	YES	YES	NO	YES	NO	NO
... to repairing infrastructure in gas drilling communities (like roads and bridges torn up by the 100s of heavy trucks driven in for each well)?	YES	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO
... with revenue dedicated to long-term sustainable economic development in gas drilling areas (such as community colleges), to prevent a boom-bust scenario?	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
Supports a moratorium on issuing new drilling permits until we fully regulate and protect our drinking water to Safe Drinking Water Act standards?	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
Supports a moratorium on leasing state land for gas drilling until we study what old-growth forests, preserves, and recreation areas are most important to protect?	YES	YES	NO	YES	NO	NO
Supports a moratorium on issuing any drilling permits in the Delaware River Watershed (water supply to 15 million, and currently an un-drilled area) until we perform a comprehensive cumulative impact study?	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO

Joe Hoeffel

Joe's position paper covers all of these with the exception of the last, for which he issued a separate statement.

Dan Onorato

While Dan Onorato explicitly said he "wouldn't support a severance tax" at the Farm Show forum (11 January 2010), saying "You want to do it in a way where you don't kill the industry before it gets going," he rapidly changed his mind and proposed a severance tax three weeks later in a policy paper on 1 February 2010 -- "but not an excessive one". In the March 25, 2010, Scranton Times-Tribune, Onorato said that he would dedicate severance tax revenue to local infrastructure, Growing Greener, and DEP (this comes from multiple sources, including WGAL interview). Onorato has has recently called for a moratorium on leasing state land (multiple sources, including WGAL interview).

When enumerating what his severance tax would cover, it is very consistently just DEP, Growing Greener, and local infrastructure -- Onorato has never addressed the need to establish sustainable economic development in these communities to prevent a boom-bust scenario when the industry leaves. And Onorato has not responded to Hoeffel's entreaties to join him in calling for a moratorium on new permits or on protecting the Delaware River. These are not things Onorato has explicitly stated he is against, but things to which he has has repeatedly refused to respond .

Jack Wagner

Jack Wagner has said very little about the environmental side of the Marcellus Shale, focusing instead on economic potential and specifically on how we should create natural gas fueling stations on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. On a severance tax, Wagner said he would "insist that the costs of the increased government oversight necessary to build and monitor this new industry be borne by the industry itself" (Philly for Change questionnaire, fall 2009), but says he is "cautious about taxing a new industry" on his Auditor General website. At the Sustainability Forum (late April 2010), Wagner echoed support for a severance tax after all three other Democrats supported it but "threw in the caveat that Pennsylvania should not tax shale at a rate higher than other states". Unlike the other three Democrats at that forum, when given the opportunity to do so he did not outline any plan for using severance tax revenue, and he has not to my knowledge ever identified specific ways severance tax revenue would be dedicated.

Jack is in general very pro-drilling (easily seen in his WGAL interview), and holds views incompatible with moratoria. He speaks in great detail about the economic benefits of drilling, and addresses environmental issues only in saying "We must protect our environment. That is first and foremost the responsibility of state government. I am committed to do that," while identifying no specific environmental concerns and proposing no policies.

Tony Williams

Williams expressed support for a severance tax at the Sustainability Forum (late April 2010), citing he would fund "green initiatives" and Growing Greener, naming nothing else. Williams has called for a moratorium on leasing state land (WGAL interview), but has gone on record saying "I do not support a moratorium on new permits" (Capitol Ideas with John L. Micek, 22 Feb 2010) and has never mentioned making an exception to this policy for the Delaware River.

Sam Rohrer

Sam Rohrer says "we have the ability to take and make Pennsylvania look like Texas when it comes to energy. And if anybody's been to Texas, you know what it has done for their economy in the long term. Pennsylvania can in fact be that same kind of a look." Rohrer says, "the laws are in place, and the technology is there, so that we know how to drill. We know how to obtain these natural resources, develop them in a safe way for the environment. It's been done before, we can do it again" (WGAL interview).

Rohrer has said "he'd avoid unnecessary taxes of the industry. The state should encourage investment from energy companies ... not 'worry about how to tax them'" (pa2010, 9 February 2010). In his Energy Freedom Plan (22 March 2010), he says he will "veto and oppose every effort to impose a natural gas severance tax" and will "support expanded exploration and drilling on state lands".

Tom Corbett

Corbett "has consistently championed the potential of the Marcellus Shale and the opportunity to create jobs and revenue for the commonwealth without imposing any new taxes. Tom does not support a tax on the industry and has said that state lands belong to the taxpayers and therefore any royalties or funds derived from them should be used to reduce the tax burden on taxpayers" (his campaign website).

Corbett's "Making Pennsylvania an Energy Leader" paper includes a small section on environmental concerns after lengthy discussion of economic policy and tax credits for natural gas drillers. Corbett says, "Pennsylvania’s water protection statutes and regulations relating to oil and gas drilling are among the toughest and most effective in the nation." He will form workgroups with the legislature, the industry, and environmental groups "to further protect this precious resource", and he will encourage water recycling where technology permits. Tom also repeats his preference for leasing state land and collecting royalties rather than taxing the industry