Issue Position: Protecting our Environment

Issue Position

The right to a clean environment is part of our state Constitution, which I swore to uphold. We should maintain it while we use it, and protect it from overuse and abuse for short-term gain. That is why I believe a severance tax, or at least an impact fee on natural gas drilling is not just a no-brainer, but a requirement. Every gas-producing state, including Texas and Alaska, has one. The public overwhelmingly agrees. Even the gas industry supports having one. While the potential economic benefit to Pennsylvania is tremendous, stronger regulations and effective enforcement are needed to ensure that private property and public lands, roads and water resources are protected. This will be expensive, and the industry must pay for it. For the same reasons, drilling revenue also must be used to reinvigorate the Growing Greener program. This state program has helped restore strip mines and polluted waterways left by earlier resource-extraction industries; protect farmland, open spaces and state parks from overdevelopment; and helped communities face land use and water and sewer issues. It is vital to the Pennsylvania way of life.

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