Impact

The Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) said impact fee collections could increase or decrease this year depending largely on natural gas prices, which have trended lower through the first half of 2018.

Higher natural gas prices and more new wells helped Pennsylvania collect nearly $210 million in impact fees last year, about $36 million more than in 2016, the state Public Utility Commission (PUC) said on Thursday.

The Republican-led Pennsylvania House energy committee has voted 15-11 along party lines for an amendment to change the name of the state’s “impact fee” to “severance tax.” The committee hasn’t voted to move the amendment to the House floor. In a procedural move, the amendment would block a resolution filed by Democrats to bring a severance tax bill to the floor for a vote. It also comes after the state Senate passed a revenue package to fund the state budget that calls for establishing a severance tax on unconventional natural gas production. The impact fee was established in 2012 and is charged annually on nearly all unconventional wells in the state during their first 15 years of operation. Producers have paid more than $1.2 billion in impact fees for distribution to local communities and state agencies since it was enacted. House energy committee Chairman John Maher told local news media that changing the impact fee’s name would help to demonstrate that producers have a significant tax burden in the state.

The Republican-led Pennsylvania House energy committee has voted 15-11 along party lines for an amendment to change the name of the state’s “impact fee” to “severance tax.” The committee hasn’t voted to move the amendment to the House floor. In a procedural move, the amendment would block a resolution filed by Democrats to bring a severance tax bill to the floor for a vote. It also comes after the state Senate passed a revenue package to fund the state budget that calls for establishing a severance tax on unconventional natural gas production. The impact fee was established in 2012 and is charged annually on nearly all unconventional wells in the state during their first 15 years of operation. Producers have paid more than $1.2 billion in impact fees for distribution to local communities and state agencies since it was enacted. House energy committee Chairman John Maher told local news media that changing the impact fee’s name would help to demonstrate that producers have a significant tax burden in the state.

Two Northern California counties and a Southern California coastal city on Monday sued 37 oil and natural gas and coal companies, alleging they have known for half a century that their production was contributing to climate change, including devastating impacts from coastal flooding.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) said it collected more than $173 million in impact fees from the state’s natural gas producers in 2016, but fees declined on low commodity prices to the lowest level since enacted in 2012 and were down for the third year in a row.

Williams Partners LP on Tuesday released an economic impact analysis conducted by Rutgers University that found the company’s Northeast Supply Enhancement Project would generate $327 million in economic activity and nearly 3,200 jobs in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.

PJM Interconnection released the results Tuesday of its capacity auction for the 2020-2021 period, with natural gas combined-cycle plants accounting for most of the new generation cleared at 2,350 MW.

President Trump signed an executive order (EO) Wednesday affecting the Antiquities Act of 1906, and potentially future oil and natural gas development, shortly after he and other Cabinet officials accused previous administrations of an “egregious abuse of federal power” in using the law to designate millions of acres as national monuments.