Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett plans to introduce an impact fee for Marcellus Shale producers this month.

Speaking on a Philadelphia radio program last Thursday, Corbett offered few details about his plan but said his administration is drafting a package of Marcellus legislation that includes a fee on natural gas operators to pay for impacts of development, such as damage to infrastructure caused by increased truck traffic.

While supporting the concept for months, the announcement was the first indication Corbett will propose fee legislation. The type of fee remains to be seen, but most of the money would stay local, Corbett said. “The primary amount of money… will go to the counties, and the counties will work with the municipalities,” he said, saying some funds would go to statewide emergency management and environmental clean up.

The Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission (MSAC) recommended an impact fee, but legislative leaders say it won’t get votes from the Philadelphia area — where there is no Marcellus activity — unless the fee funds statewide programs. Corbett addressed that indirectly, saying, “Often times I hear people say, ‘Well, what’s in it for us in areas that do not have the Marcellus Shale?’ First off, cheaper, affordable energy.”

When lawmakers return from their summer break, they will begin sorting through more than a dozen tax and fee proposals introduced earlier this year. The bill with the most momentum going into the fall is an amended version of one introduced by Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati (see NGI, June 20).

Lawmakers also plan to take up pipeline safety and a model ordinance for local governments, legislative leaders said recently. With the MSAC report out, lawmakers are eager to pass bills (see NGI, July 25).

“Now that that report is out, I think you’re going to see more legislative activity,” Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, a Republican from the southeastern Pennsylvania, said on Sept. 8 on a panel of Pennsylvania lawmakers at the Shale Gas Insight 2011 conference hosted by the Marcellus Shale Coalition.

State lawmakers have a backlog of at least 100 Marcellus-related bills. “We have a lot of other issues on the agenda, but none, in my view, are more important than finally bringing this basket of issues out of the realm of discussion and into the realm of statues that become the law of Pennsylvania,” Pileggi said.

Pipeline safety could be among the first. The state Senate and House passed similar bills earlier this year to hand federal oversight of gathering lines over the state regulators. Those bills differ in how they handle gathering lines in remote areas, though, and must be reconciled.

An issue with much less support is the role of local governments as regulators. “What is the right balance between local control and state regulation of various activities involved in the extraction of gas?” Pileggi asked. “That needs a statutory framework and we intend to provide one.”

While acknowledging the tradition of local control in Pennsylvania — a state with more than 2,500 local government entities — Pileggi said a statewide ordinance could work, depending on the scope.

Pileggi represents a region of the state where municipalities aren’t facing those decisions. Rep. Sandra Major, a Republican from the most prolific corner of northeastern Pennsylvania, agreed that the issue must be discussed, but said she supports local control “because of the diversity within my rural areas.”

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