I am extremely concerned with the approval by our state government to lease state forest land to developers so they can extract natural gas from the Marceldlus Shale natural gas formation that is under large sections of PA State Forests, as well as other areas in NY State, Ohio, and West Virginia. Although I am an outdoor enthusiast at heart, we have to drill somewhere if we are going to tap into this huge deposit of natural gas. Pennsylvania needs the money, and taxpayers might be able to get property tax breaks that are badly needed in the poor financial times we are experiencing. The state will get 16% royalty in addition to the fees for leasing the state forest land.

What concerns me is that several developers have not been good stewards of public lands and have been fined before on numerous occasions for ignoring or breaking the law and showing a total lack of concern about the impact of their drilling operations on public land. Whats more, the DCNR apparently doesn't have the manpower to monitor the developers activities and I fear that these companies that are only concerned with profits will skate off with the money and leave us the mess. They will endanger wildlife habitat, may construct new roads, lay pipelines, and pollute water. Pollution has already occurred in the Allegheny National Forest and apparently, the state continues to lease state forest land, public land, to the highest bidders, even though they have a tract record of breaking not only the rules of previous leases, but environmental laws.

The Allegheny National Forest Allegheny Defense Project have been an excellent environmentally concerned organization that is raising the alarm about the violations some of these companies are previously committed and I urge anyone that reads this blog to contact them by going to their website: http://www.alleghenydefense.org/  Here is just one artical concerning the drilling.

"Pennsylvania will lease 74,000 forest acres for gas drilling 

by The Associated Press

Monday July 14, 2008, 1:36 PM

 

One of Appalachia's largest landowners, Pennsylvania's state forestry agency, wants in on any windfall from drilling a potentially lucrative natural gas formation.

More than 74,000 acres, or more than 115 square miles, in three north-central Pennsylvania state forests went up for bid today to natural gas companies that are in hot pursuit of the mostly untapped Marcellus Shale natural gas formation.

More than 300 companies have expressed interest to the department in drilling on Pennsylvania's state forests, although state officials refused to release the list. The department owns about 2.1 million acres of state forest.

Bids for the below-ground oil and gas rights on 18 tracts will be accepted until 2 p.m. on Sept. 3. To win, a bidder must submit the highest offer on the first year's land rental.

The 10-year lease also includes standard annual rental fees -- $20 an acre in years two through four and $35 an acre in years five through 10 -- and a standard 16 percent royalty collected by the state on natural gas production.

For each tract, state forestry officials will limit the number of well pads that are allowed, encourage the use of existing roads and prohibit surface work that could damage sensitive areas, waterways or recreational areas.

The tracts are in the Loyalsock, Tiadaghton and Tioga state forests in Tioga and Lycoming counties.

Pennsylvania state officials imposed a moratorium on drilling in state forests in 2003 in response to concerns that roads, well pads and pipelines were destroying wildlife habitat"