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Governor Corbett Announces Marcellus Shale Proposal

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Governor Corbett has released his plan for the Marcellus Shale industry, calling for some stronger regulations, an impact fee and the development of green corridors for natural gas vehicles.  He made the announcement after weeks of reviewing the recommendations of his Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission.

The Governor’s proposed impact fee on Marcellus Shale wells would be adopted by counties. He says 75% would be shared among each county and its municipalities. Twenty-five percent would go to the state, with the largest share to PennDOT and the rest split among the Department of Environmental Protection, Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, and the State Fire Commissioner.

The Governor is also calling for enhanced environmental standards for drilling operations, and higher penalties for violations. He wants to increase the gas well setback distance from water wells and  public water supplies. He would also increase the well setback distance from streams, rivers, ponds and other bodies of water. He wants to increase the well bonding fee.

The Governor’s plan would allow DEP to take quicker action to revoke or withhold permits for operators who consistently violate the rules.

The impact fee would be up to $40,000 per well in the first year, $30,000 in the second, $20,000 in the third and no more than $10,000 in years four through ten.  He says that’s a total of $160,000 per well. Governor Corbett says estimates show that the fee would bring in about $120 million dollars in the first year and $200 million within six years.

Of the 75% that would stay at the county collecting the fee, Governor Corbett says 36% would be retained by the county, 37% would be distributed to municipalities that host the drilling pads and the remaining 27% would be distributed to all municipalities in a county that is impacted by Marcellus using a formula based on population and highway miles.

Governor Corbett says the money could be used for things such as road maintenance and repair, water and sewer system construction and repair, projects to increase affordable housing for low income residents, social services and municipal planning.

The Governor says he will seek to develop green corridors in the state for natural gas vehicles. He says we have all this gas; we need to have a market for it.

Governor Corbett says the energy under our feet is going to be fueling the state’s economy, heating the homes, lighting houses and businesses for generations to come. He says it’s cleaner and it creates much fewer emissions. He says energy means jobs. The Governor made his announcement at a carpenters’ training facility in Pittsburgh Monday morning.

Black Bear Attacks Perry County Couple in Their Home

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    In what Pennsylvania Game Commission officials are calling a very rare occurrence, a black bear crashed into a Perry County home and attacked a couple early Monday morning.

    It happened around 4am, as the couple was letting their dog back inside the home. The bear was in pursuit of the canine, which is understandable according to Jerry Feaser at the Game Commission. He says dogs and bears “don’t get along at all,” and it’s not unusual for them to get into confrontations outside. Feaser says it is very unusual for a bear to then attack humans. The man was bitten and scratched, and the woman was also attacked. Both were taken to a hospital for treatment.

    A Wildlife Conservation Officer was dispatched to look for the bear, but it remained in the wild as of daybreak. Feaser says if they find the bear responsible for the attack, it will likely be put down, but because this occurred in a rural area, there could be several bears in the vicinity.

 

Good News and Bad News for Fall Pheasant Stocking

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The Pennsylvania Game Commission has some updated figures on the number of pheasants lost due to flooding.  They’ve recovered about 8 to 9 thousand of the birds they thought were lost to flooding from Tropical Storm Lee. Those birds were still running around outside the holding pens.  In addition,   there was not quite as much damage to two of the agency’s game farms in Lycoming County as first feared.

Game Commission spokesman Jerry Feaser says the flooding at the Loyalsock and Northcentral game farms did not impact core equipment or resources they will need to ramp up pheasant production next year.  They expect to take the number of birds to the 200,000 level.

Feaser says some of the buildings, like the hatcheries, just got a little flood water inside, and need clean up.  For the most part, all of the mechanized and computerized equipment escaped damage.  He says the barns, workshops, farm equipment and water lines in the fields were all relatively untouched.

However, because of the loss of about 31,000 pheasants, they’ll only be able to stock about 74 thousand birds this year. The commission had planned to stock just over 100,000.

***Photo of Ring Necked Pheasant by Joe Kosack/PGC Photo

Hazard Mitigation Is Part of Post-Flood Follow Up

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In the aftermath of a disaster, clean up is the main focus.  But officials are already looking at ways they can prevent some of the devastating flooding from happening again.   Tropical Storm Lee brought more than a foot of rain to parts of Pennsylvania, but some of the flooding was made worse by other factors according to Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency Director Glen Cannon.

Cannon says the levees along the Susquehanna did protect a number of people, but the system being incomplete caused severe damage for other people.  He says it funneled the water down into a channel, increasing the speed and causing the water to back up into other tributaries above those levees, and flood in places that had never been flooded before.

Cannon says PEMA is actively working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency on hazard mitigation.  He says they don’t want to wait until the disaster is over.

Cannon says as they figure out the dollar value of the disaster, which is going to be hundreds of millions of dollars, ten percent of it will be given back in the form of money to be used for disaster mitigation projects across the Commonwealth.

Cannon says hazard mitigation applications must come to PEMA from the local and county governments. He adds a county must have its own mitigation plan to be eligible to receive some of the funding.  But he says that should not be a problem in Pennsylvania. The state hired a contractor to work with the counties to make sure their plans were in place.

Cannon spoke at a recent joint hearing of the Senate and House Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee, which is considering a state disaster assistance program to fill the gap when disaster fall below the federal threshold for aid.

Heavy Rains Boost Mosquito Population

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If you’ve been swatting more mosquitoes lately, you can lay some of the blame on Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee.   The back to back storms left a lot of standing water, where mosquitoes are likely to breed.

 Kevin Sunday, spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection, says they started noticing more mosquitoes showing up in some of the traps in the north central and south central parts of the state. In one trap, which usually caught 25 mosquitoes, was capturing in the hundreds, and in some occasions in the thousands of mosquitoes.  

Sunday says they were seeing about 25% more of the mosquitoes that carry the West Nile Virus before the storms, since the flooding there’s been another increase of about 10%.

DEP has been doing extra control operations across the state to bring the mosquito population down. That effort will continue for another month. PEMA and the state Department of Health had asked DEP to collaborate and do additional sprayings.

Sunday says people can help by eliminating as much of the standing water around their properties as possible. He says wheelbarrows, jammed gutters and even overturned Frisbees can collect enough water for mosquitoes to breed.

Sunday adds that people should also take steps to keep mosquitoes out of their homes, checking to make sure screens are intact. He says wear long sleeves and use insect repellant when you have to work outdoors in the evening when mosquitoes are out.

Tougher Teen Driver Law Wins Final Legislative Approval

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The house has concurred with senate amendments, giving final approval to a bill to boost teen driver safety.   Representative Kathy Watson (R-Bucks) has been trying to strengthen the teen driver law since 2005, she says the greatest distraction is other teens in the vehicle. 

The senate watered down the key provision limiting passengers for new drivers; it will apply to the first six months of a junior license instead of the full term. However, the senate added a reporting requirement. There will be a biannual report done on the legislation to see how it’s working, and whether the state has reduced the number of crashes and deaths for 16 and 17 year old drivers and passengers.

HB9  limits teen drivers to a single non family passenger for the first six months. If they have a clean driving record at that point, they’d be allowed to have up to three young people who are not their family members in the vehicle with them.

The bill also makes seatbelt violations a primary offense for drivers and passengers under 18. Watson says that means a police officer can stop a young driver if they or their passengers under age 18 are not buckled up.  She says 50% of those who have died in crashes in this age group were not wearing seatbelts.

The measure also adds 15 hours-10 of night time and five of inclement weather driving-to the current 50 hour training requirement for a junior license.

Watson   says studies show a 16-year-old’s chance of dying in a crash increases with each passenger added to the vehicle. She believes the bill gives families a better tool to construct whatever rules they feel are important for their teen driver. She expects the governor will sign it into law.

GOP, Women Boost Corbett’s Poll Numbers

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Governor Tom Corbett’s approval ratings have reached the elusive 50% mark, according to today’s Quinnipiac Poll.  “Governor Corbett’s batting average with Republicans and women in the state have surged 11 percentage points,” says Quinnipiac pollster Tim Malloy, who notes that today’s 50 – 32 mark is Corbett’s best to date. 

“Compared to slumping GOP governors in other swing states, he’s headed to the all-star game,” Malloy says. “The governor’s having a good month.  People are gravitating toward him.”  In Ohio, a recent Quinnipiac Poll shows Governor John Kasich under water with a negative 40 – 49 job approval rating.  In Florida, 50% of voters disapprove of the job that Governor Rick Scott is doing. 

“Whatever’s happened in the past few weeks… it may be the flooding, the way he handled that, it may be that people are just warming up to him.  He’s had a good week here,” Malloy said of Corbett’s surge. However, Corbett’s support wanes when voters are asked they like his policies.  42% said they “like” Corbett’s policies, 37% responded “don’t like.”

Rain Increases Flooding Threat Again

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Some areas that had barely dried out after Tropical Storm Lee were getting hit with flooding again as a low pressure system brought showers and heavy downpours to parts of Pennsylvania on Tuesday and Wednesday. The eastern half of the state was under flash flood watches and warnings.

Flooding was reported in Luzerne, Lackawanna and Wyoming Counties, areas that had been hit earlier this month by Lee. Flood warnings were also issued for parts of Columbia, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon, Schuylkill, Snyder, Northumberland, Cumberland, Perry, York, Montour, Sullivan, Tioga, Lycoming and Union counties.

Charles Ross, hydrologist with the National Weather Service in State College, says the ground is still very saturated, and it doesn’t take a lot of rain to cause flooding. A low pressure system to the west brought moisture from the south with rain showers and embedded heavier thunderstorms.

Ross says August was already a wet month, and then we had Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee. He says that raised the risk for quick rises on streams, creeks and rivers in areas hit by heavy downpours. He says the rainfall amounts from this system are not anywhere near the level of Lee, but some areas were getting 3-6 inches.

Ross says the rain should start moving out Thursday and by the weekend, it will feel like fall.

Committees Discuss Possible State Disaster Assistance Fund, Prevention is also Highlighted

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Disaster relief is not only a matter of picking up the pieces from the last severe storm or event, but looking at ways to prevent some of the problems the next time.  State lawmakers heard that message this week as they talked about the idea of a state disaster assistance fund. They’re  considering a fund that would help in recovery, when the threshold for federal aid is not reached.  

Any discussion of a small disaster program should also focus on prevention according to David Sanko, director of the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors.  He told a joint hearing of the state House and Senate Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness committees that if municipalities could take preventative action like cleaning out streams and rivers, many flooding disasters could be reduced or eliminated.

 Sanko says the current state Department Environmental Protection process to obtain an emergency permit should be streamlined so that a municipality can go in and take corrective action before, and not after a disaster occurs.  He says the buildup of gravel bars and other items in the stream bed can occur quickly, and increase the possibility of flood damage and its severity.

Sanko says they also recommend DEP amend its regulations to develop a process to preauthorize emergency issuance of all general permits needed to allow municipalities to remove all impediments, such as fallen trees or gravel bars which occur suddenly.  He says DEP should consider using flood prevention money to pay for stream cleanup that they oversee and control.  He says local governments should not have to go through the permitting process, and then foot the bill to alleviate flooding hazards in their community.

Sanko says it’s a matter of prioritizing.  He says prevention is a lot less expensive than cleanup.

First Lady Helps Turn Capitol Fountain Pink

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First Lady Susan Corbett

First Lady Suan Corbett

Pink is the Color of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and the pink fountain is a visual reminder of the importance of mammograms and early detection.  “When you see the pink fountain outside, I hope you all remember that we can beat this disease if we take the time to have that early screening,” says First Lady Susan Corbett, who shared her own mother’s breast cancer survival story.  “So I’m going to ask each of you to be that person who takes someone by the hand and encourages them to have a mammogram.” 

The numbers drive home Mrs. Corbett’s point that early detection is the best way to fight the disease.  “When breast cancer is found at its earliest stages – which it can be with a mammogram – the survival rate is 95 – 98%,” PA Breast Cancer Coalition executive director Heather Hibshman explained in an interview with Radio PA. 

Every day 32 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in Pennsylvania.  “It blows me away,” Hibshman says.  “Everybody seems to know somebody with breast cancer, and with numbers like that I believe it.  We need to get that number down to zero.” 

Pennsylvania is home to 140,000 breast cancer survivors who will be marking Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October.