PA Environmental Groups Release Marcellus Scorecard for State Legislators

Scorecard grades General Assembly members on recent gas drilling votes

(Harrisburg) – Four of Pennsylvania’s largest citizen-based environmental organizations released their joint “Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale Scorecard” today, giving each state senator and representative an environmental grade based on their votes related to Act 13, the omnibus Marcellus Shale legislation signed into law by Gov. Tom Corbett on February 14.

Between November, 2011 and February, 2012, the Pennsylvania state legislature held a series of votes on HB 1950 (Act 13), a bill that overturned local ordinances on gas drilling, establishes one of the nation’s lowest gas extraction fees, and makes only minimal improvements to environmental and public health protections from oil and gas drilling.  Passage of Act 13 is the first significant legislation enacted in Pennsylvania since the Marcellus Shale gas drilling boom began over four years ago.  The Marcellus Scorecard provides Pennsylvania’s residents with information on how their legislators voted on this law which will have far reaching impacts on all Pennsylvanians.  The Scorecard covers final passage votes as well as votes on floor amendments to the bill.

“When voters head to the polls this year, they should know how their legislators handled the Marcellus Shale, the biggest environmental issue facing Pennsylvania. Combined, we expect our organizations will distribute this scorecard to more than a quarter million Pennsylvania citizens and give every voter online access to this data,” stated Josh McNeil of Conservation Voters of PA.

“We are glad to see that we have some environmental heroes in the state legislature who stood up to protect our water, our air, and our neighborhoods from gas drilling.  Unfortunately, far too many legislators earned failing grades in this Scorecard,” stated Jeff Schmidt, Director for the Sierra Club Pennsylvania Chapter.

42 State Representatives and 14 State Senators earned perfect 100% scores, including:

·         Senate Minority Leader Senator Jay Costa (D-Allegheny)

·         Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee Minority Chair Senator John Yudichak (D-Luzerne)

·         Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee members Senator Daylin Leach (D-Montgomery) and Senator Andrew Dinniman (D-Chester)

·         House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee members Rep. Scott Conklin (D-Centre), Rep. Greg Vitali (D-Delaware), Rep. Steve Santarsiero (D-Bucks), Rep. Eugene DePasquale (D-York), Rep. Bryan Barbin (D-Cambria)

·         Minority Caucus Chair Rep. Dan Frankel (D-Allegheny)

Legislators scoring below 50% include:

·         Senators Charles McIlhinney (R-Bucks), Stewart Greenleaf (R-Montgomery), Richard Alloway (R-Franklin), Edwin Erickson (R-Delaware), and Bob Mensch (R-Montgomery), each of whom signed a letter to the Governor opposing HB 1950 and vowing to protect municipal rights only days before voting in favor of the bill.

·         Senator John Wozniak (D-Cambria), Senator Tim Solobay (D-Washington), and Rep. Peter Daley (D-Washington), who represented the lowest scores among Democrats

·         House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee members Rick Saccone (R-Allegheny), Randy Vulakovich (R-Allegheny), and Martin Causer (R-McKean)

·         House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee Majority Chair Rep. Scott Hutchinson (R-Venango)

·         House Speaker Rep. Sam Smith (R-Punxsutawney)

·         Majority Leader Rep. Mike Turzai (R-Allegheny)

“It should have raised red flags for the Pennsylvania legislature when they voted for a bill supported by the industry that had a financially vested interest in the outcome, yet was opposed by environmental, public health and sportsmen’s groups, and local government officials from both parties and every corner of the Commonwealth,” stated David Masur, Director for PennEnvironment.

“It’s disappointing to see that protecting the public and the environment no longer gets bi-partisan support.  While there are members of both parties that had low scores, there were no Republican members who earned a passing grade.  One of the main reasons that Act 13 passed was that Republican members who used to support environmental protections chose to side with Governor Corbett and the gas industry,” stated Myron Arnowitt, PA State Director for Clean Water Action.

Democratic members of the state legislature earned scores ranging from 0% to 100%.  Democrats earning a failing score under 63% included:  Sen. Wozniak (Cambria), Sen. Solobay (Washington), Sen. Brewster (Allegheny), Rep. Daley (Washington), Rep. Gergley (Allegheny), Rep. Gibbons (Beaver), Rep. Mullery (Luzerne), Rep. Wheatley (Allegheny).

However, the highest Republican score was only 54%.  This is in stark contrast to Scorecards put out in past years by these environmental groups where numerous Republican legislators earned scores of 90-100%.

The Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale Scorecard is available on the websites of all four organizations:

http://www.cleanwateraction.org/pa

http://pennenvironment.org/page/pae/2012-marcellus-scorecard

http://www.pennsylvania.sierraclub.org/

http://www.conservationpa.org/

Since September 14, the Gas Drilling Industry Has Contributed $144,000 to the PA Governor’s Race

Corbett: $139,000 Onorato: $5,000

Harrisburg – MarcellusMoney.org, a project of Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania (CVPA) and Common Cause PA, tracks campaign contributions from natural gas industry PACs and executives to candidates for Pennsylvania state office.

Today, MarcellusMoney.org released the gas contribution figures for gubernatorial candidates Dan Onorato and Tom Corbett from campaign finance reporting cycle 5. Cycle 5 included the 34 days between September 14 and October 18, 2010.

In cycle 5, Republican candidate Tom Corbett received at least $139,000 from the natural gas drilling industry. His cycle 5 average of $4,088.24 per day is up from $3448.45 per day in cycle 4. Corbett has received a grand total of at least $856,220 in reported contributions from the gas drilling industry in the last decade.

In cycle 5, Democratic candidate Dan Onorato received at least $5,000 from the natural gas industry. His cycle 5 average of $147.06 per day is down from $463.91 per day in cycle 4. Onorato has received a grand total of at least $124,300 in the last decade.

“In the last weeks before the election, drilling industry CEOs went all out for Tom Corbett because he thinks that ordinary Pennsylvanians should pay to clean up the messes that their drills leave behind,” Josh McNeil of Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania said. “Supporting Corbett might make sense if you’re a drilling company CEO, but not if you’re an ordinary Pennsylvanian.”

Earlier this month, the Pennsylvania Senate failed to vote on a severance tax on Marcellus Shale drillers. The legislature is unlikely to deal with Marcellus Shale drilling in any way before it’s next session. It will therefore be up to one of these two candidates to shape drilling’s impacts on Pennsylvania.

Dan Onorato supports a severance tax to pay for environmental protections and to help communities deal with the impacts of gas drilling. Tom Corbett does not.

It is estimated that the severance tax recently passed out of the House of Representatives would raise approximately $316 million in 2011-12 and as much as $570 million by 2014-15 for environmental protections, conservation programs and local communities. In the absence of a severance tax, regular taxpayers will end up paying for all of those costs.

Contributions to Tom Corbett, should he win the election, could earn drilling companies a 66,572% return on their investment in his campaign.


Note: The contribution data to Onorato and Corbett for cycles 4 and 5 is not yet available on MarcellusMoney.org. It will be posted in the next 48 hours.

Contact: Josh McNeil; 215.564.3350; joshua.mcneil@conservationpa.org

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Corbett Gas Ads Mislead the Public

Sierra Club, Clean Water Action, PennEnvironment and Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania call for the Corbett campaign to stop airing ads on Marcellus Shale

Harrisburg – In the last week, gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett has launched two campaign ads that focus on Marcellus Shale drilling and the severance tax. The first, a radio ad, refers to the severance tax as “a huge extra tax on drillers” that will: “make it more difficult for companies to compete, kill jobs, and increase utility bills.” The second, a TV spot, calls a severance tax “a massive Pennsylvania energy tax that will kill jobs and drive up utility bills.” These statements paint a dire and inaccurate picture of the economic impacts of a severance tax. PennEnvironment, Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania, Clean Water Action and the Sierra Club ask Mr. Corbett to pull these ads off the air.

“These ads are pure and simple fear mongering without any facts,” said Myron Arnowitt, PA State Director, Clean Water Action. “The reality is that communities have had their drinking water contaminated by gas drilling. It’s only fair to ask these multinational oil and gas companies to pay to clean up the damage.”

“A massive/huge extra tax”: Pennsylvania is the only major gas producing state that does not require gas drillers to pay for our natural resources. Montana charges an effective rate of 7.5% on gas drillers. New Mexico: 7.3%. Oklahoma: 6.7% The proposals for a PA severance tax fall into this same range. Pennsylvania is also the only state in which property taxes cannot be collected on drilling rights, lowering the Commonwealth’s overall tax rate for drillers. It’s not a huge tax, it’s a tax that’s in line with established practice throughout the country and one that drillers expect to pay. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that a drilling executive from Dallas told Rep. Karen Beyer (R., Lehigh) that the industry is willing to pay a production tax. Beyer called Pennsylvania's lack of an extraction tax "an outrage."

“Drilling poses serious risks to Pennsylvanians and our environment. A severance tax will compensate communities and fund projects that repair environmental damage,” state Dennis Winters, Chair of Sierra Club’s Pennsylvania Chapter. “It is time the drillers pay their fair share in Pennsylvania. The public deserves to be told that the severance tax is a tax on producers and not consumers. Mr Corbett seems to be running the same ads as the American Petroleum institute, the industry’s mouthpiece.”

“Drive up utility bills”: Gas is bought and sold on a worldwide market and the production price of any single gas source has a negligible effect on the market rate. Currently, most Pennsylvanians get their gas from out of state, from states that already impose a severance tax. Gas that is produced in Pennsylvania goes into the same gas market as the gas from everywhere else, meaning that an increased production cost in Pennsylvania due to a severance tax will have little bearing on the price paid by consumers.

“Mr. Corbett’s advertisement feels a bit like an Alice in Wonderland scenario where everything is topsy-turvy,” stated David Masur of PennEnvironment. “The environmental community by and large has vocally supported the passage of the natural gas severance tax so for Mr. Corbett to attempt to claim the environmental high ground on this issue by opposing the extraction fee is a bit ridiculous.”

“Kills jobs”: The argument that a severance tax will kill jobs is based on the idea that a tax will slow the production of gas in Pennsylvania and thus delay the creation of drilling jobs. This argument supposes that increased taxation will lead to less drilling. The massive amount of drilling currently occurring in Texas, Colorado, and the other states, each of which currently maintains a severance tax, belies this argument. Pennsylvania’s location, next to the major gas markets of the American northeast, means that Pennsylvania drillers will always have an advantage over other states due to decreased transportation costs.

Additionally, a recent Penn State study* reports that a severance tax will actually create jobs in Pennsylvania. The study predicts that for every $100 million paid in severance taxes, the Commonwealth will see a net job gain of 1,100 jobs. Meanwhile, the Allegheny Conference on Community Development estimates that 70% of the jobs at Marcellus Shale sites currently go to workers from out of state. The job increase from state and local spending based on a severance tax would employ primarily Pennsylvania workers, meaning that the net job gain for Pennsylvanians would be even higher than the study reports. The real truth is that failing to enact a severance tax will cost Pennsylvania thousands of jobs each year.

“If you want to lead Pennsylvania, misleading its citizens is a bad place to start,” said Josh McNeil of Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania. “Mr. Corbett needs to take down these deceitful ads.”

Neither the Sierra Club nor Clean Water Action have made an endorsement in the Pennsylvania Governor’s race. Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania and PennEnvironment have endorsed Dan Onorato.

*Rose M. Baker and David Passmore, Benchmarks for Assessing the Potential Impact of a Natural Gas Severance Tax on the Pennsylvania Economy, September 13, 2010 http://www.personal.psu.edu/dlp/remi2010/#/.

Natural Gas Donations Predict Marcellus Tax Votes

An analysis of the House of Representatives vote on SB 1155 by MarcellusMoney.org

Harrisburg – MarcellusMoney.org, a project of Common Cause PA and Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania, tracks the more than $3 million that the natural gas industry has spent on campaign contributions and $5 million spent on lobbying efforts in the Commonwealth.

Yesterday, by a vote of 104 to 94, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives voted in favor of SB 1155, a bill to establish a tax on drilling companies that extract gas from Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale. Though a victory for environmental protection, yesterday’s vote reveals just how insidious natural gas money has become.

The 104 who voted for the bill have taken an average of $824 from the natural gas industry, while the 94 legislators who voted against the bill took an average of $2,900 from the gas industry, or 3.5 times as much as those in favor of a severance tax. The vote split largely along party lines, with Democrats generally in favor, Republicans generally against. The vote count and accompanying data can be downloaded here: http://bit.ly/an3N18

The ten Democrats who voted against the bill, Representatives Barbin, Casorio, Deweese, Harhai, Kotik, Markosek, Pallone, Petrarca, Sainato, and White, accepted a total of $64,700 from the gas industry, an average of $6,470 each. Of these Democrats, only Rep. Barbin took no contributions from the natural gas industry.

The twelve Republicans who voted in favor of the bill, Representatives Beyer, DiGirolamo, Harper, Hennessey, Killion, Micozzie, Milne, Murt, O’Brien, O’Neill, Quinn, and Ross, accepted a total of only $1,500, an average of $125 each. Only three of these representatives (DiGirolamo, O'Brien, and O'Neill) received any contributions from the natural gas industry.

“Some gas drillers may not want to pay their fair share, but a Marcellus Shale drilling tax is good for the Commonwealth, good for local communities, and good for the environment,” said Josh McNeil of Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania. “When legislators take thousands of dollars from the gas industry and vote to let that industry take our resources for free, we have to wonder whose interests they’re really serving.”

"This correlation between the natural gas industry's campaign contributions to our elected officials and the way in which they vote on a bill that directly affects that industry's profits speaks volumes about the current state of our elections and campaigns," said Alex Kaplan of Common Cause Pennsylvania. "In Pennsylvania, out of state gas companies are allowed to give unlimited campaign contributions to elected officials charged with protecting our environment and crafting policy to benefit our state. In Pennsylvania, wealthy special interests have the ability to speak louder than everyday citizens."

SB 1150 would tax gas drillers 39 cents per thousand cubic feet of gas extracted, competitive with similar taxes in other gas producing states. The tax is expected to raise $120 million next year, $326 million the next. These funds will be used to plug gaps in Pennsylvania’s state budget, to help local communities deal with impacts of increased drilling, and to fund the regulatory and environmental clean-up efforts required to protect Pennsylvania’s health and safety.

The passage of a tax on drilling was part of a June deal between Governor Ed Rendell and legislative leaders to pass a gas tax by October 1. The funds from a tax are needed to fill $70 million of an estimated $280 million budget deficit.

Now that the bill has passed the House, it is up to the Senate to approve the amended bill.

Natural gas companies have contributed $359,827 to members of the House of Representatives, an average of $1755.25 per member. Current State Senators have accepted more than $407,440, an average of $8148.80 per Senator.

To find contributions to individual candidates, visit www.MarcellusMoney.org.

NOTE: Because data from the most recent campaign filing has not yet been released by the Pennsylvania Department of State, the numbers above reflect donations made before June 7, 2010. Early indications are that the gas industry has donated heavily to PA candidates in the last three months. MarcellusMoney.org will make public the data of the following reporting cycle (early June through early September) as soon as it is available.

Give It Back: Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania Calls on Tom Corbett to Return Donation from One of the Companies Responsible for the Gulf Oil Spill

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is expected to cost tens of billions of dollars in damage, destroy thousands of jobs and cause incalculable damage to the environment. BP, which owns 65% of the well, set aside $20 billion in escrow to help compensate the victims of the spill and will spend billions more for the cleanup. Anadarko Petroleum, which owns 25% of the well, has thus far refused to contribute to the costs of the cleanup. It has, however, contributed to gubernatorial campaign of Attorney General Tom Corbett.

On May 13, 2010, three weeks after the oil spill began, Corbett accepted a $3,000 contribution from the Texas based Anadarko Petroleum PAC. Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania calls on Mr. Corbett to return those funds and to refuse any further contribution from Anadarko until that company has fulfilled its responsibility to those affected by the tragedy in the Gulf.

“You don’t get to light your neighbor’s house on fire and then use the hose to water your rose bushes,” Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania Executive Director Josh McNeil said. “Mr. Corbett has a responsibility to rebuke this company for its failures and to help ensure that every dollar at Anadarko’s disposal is spent to help the victims of the Gulf spill.”

Anadarko Petroleum PAC has contributed more than $279,000 to federal candidates in the 2010 election cycle, including donations to the National Republican Senatorial Committee and to the Friends of Arlen Specter. Anadarko’s contribution to the Corbett campaign was its first contribution to a state-level candidate in Pennsylvania in 2010 and was reported by the Corbett campaign on June 17, 2010.

Despite the spill in the Gulf and disasters such as the explosion of a natural gas well in Clearfield County last month, Corbett continues to advocate for a rapid increase in gas drilling in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale. Though Pennsylvania is one of few states that lets companies take its natural resources for free, he opposes the creation of a severance tax on natural gas drillers. In most severance tax proposals, a portion of the revenue would be used to ensure better regulation of drill sites and to create a clean-up fund for future disasters. Drilling companies oppose such a tax for obvious reasons and political contributions to Pennsylvania candidates from individuals and PACs related to the drilling industry have significantly increased in the last few election cycles.

“Mr. Corbett’s energy plan calls for the ‘responsible development of Marcellus Shale’ but doesn’t give us many specifics as to what that means,” McNeil said. “What he does with this contribution will give us a hint about Tom Corbett’s real commitment to responsible drilling.”

Built on the model of the national League of Conservation Voters, Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to protecting the health and safety of Pennsylvanians and their environment by holding politicians accountable for their actions. For more information, visit www.conservationpa.org