Did PA DEP Undercount Act 13 Wells & Forfeit $303M in Revenue?

Note: MDN’s headline originally stated “$100M” in revenue was forfeited. The study’s lead author, Joel Gehman, contacted MDN to correct that number. We misunderstood. They believe the DEP has forfeited two to three times that amount: $205-$303 million.

In an attempt to shame the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) into action to improve their data reporting for unconventional shale wells, researchers at the University of Alberta and McGill University (both in Canada) have published a paper in the journal Environmental Practice claiming the DEP undercounted the number of natural gas wells used for assessing the new Act 13 impact fee, thereby denying the state an extra $100 $205-$303 million they could have received in tax revenue (see article below).

The article/study is titled “An Analysis of Unconventional Gas Well Reporting Under Pennsylvania's Act 13 of 2012” and is peer reviewed, which supposedly blesses it as being accurate. However, the PA DEP strongly objected to the methodology used by the researchers and has said, point blank, they misunderstand the Act 13 requirements for what constitutes an unconventional well under the Act 13 law. DEP says there is no missing tax revenue due to an undercount. The researchers glibly reply the purpose of the article is to needle the DEP into “fixing” their data problem.

To view this content, log into your member account. (Not a member? Join Today!)