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Anti-Drilling Organizer Predicts Environmental Holocaust

Pocono Record (Oct 9):
Environmentalist: Firms drilling for natural gas would ‘destroy’ local state game lands

A reporter with anti-drilling views (Jessica Cohen) interviews a local anti-drilling organizer (Pat Carullo) in Northeast Pennsylvania. In the process, you get an article shot full of lies. Mr. Carullo is upset over 2,500 acres owned by the Mushpaugh Sportsman’s Association in Lackawaxen (privately owned, I might add), that are being leased to Cabot Oil & Gas. Mr. Carullo predicts environmental holocaust. He then goes on to rail about the state leasing public lands for drilling, confusing the two issues–the state leasing of public lands held in trust for all citizens, and citizens (or groups of citizens) who possess private property rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. The entire “article” is so full of random tirades and so completely one-sided, it’s a joke.

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Pennsylvania Budget Almost There – With No Drilling Tax

Philadelphia Inquirer (Oct 9):
Pa. budget pieces start to fall into place

With a state budget still not adopted, and now over 100 days late, Pennsylvania is finally about there. The good news for drillers…no severance tax this year:

Also not in the package is a tax that some lawmakers had wanted to impose on natural-gas drilling in the vast formation known as the Marcellus Shale.

Republicans in the Senate – and later Rendell – opposed starting such a tax this year, arguing that it would stunt drillers in an industry still in its infancy in the state.

Kudos to the Republican Senate for protecting landowners’ money.