Washington County Plans On Imposing Fee

Scott Detrow

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Scott Detrow is a congressional correspondent for NPR. He also co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast.

Detrow joined NPR in 2015 to cover the presidential election. He focused on the Republican side of the 2016 race, spending time on the campaign trail with Donald Trump, and also reported on the election's technology and data angles.

Detrow worked as a statehouse reporter for member stations WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and KQED in San Francisco, California. He has also covered energy policy for NPR's StateImpact project, where his reports on Pennsylvania's hydraulic fracturing boom won a DuPont-Columbia and national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2013.

February 17, 2012 | 10:45 AM

Washington County commissioners say they’re planning on imposing a natural gas impact fee, and could vote to authorize the levy as soon as March 1. That’s according to an Observer-Reporter article:

County solicitor J. Lynn DeHaven explained that the law permits counties to impose an “unconventional gas well” fee, which is defined as gas extracted by means other than tapping into a naturally occurring underground pocket.
Fracturing shale, commonly known as fracking, falls within the definition.
The ordinance also uses the term “spud,” which is the “actual start of drilling an unconventional gas well.”
Counties have 60 days to opt in on an impact fee, and DeHaven said he foresees the Washington County commissioners taking action on the proposed ordinance as soon as their March 1 meeting.

Washington County’s wells could generate up to $23 million in fee revenue this year, according to StateImpact Pennsylvania’s analysis. The county government would see about $6 million of that share.