Capitolwire: House Impact Fee A Tough Sell In Senate

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.

November 14, 2011 | 11:25 AM

With both the House and Senate back in session this week, the debate over legislation enacting an impact fee will likely take several twists and turns over the coming days.
House Republican leadership plans on voting on the Corbett Administration-sponsored HB 1950 either today or tomorrow. But according to Capitolwire, the measure’s section “superseding and preempting” local drilling regulations makes it a near-impossible sell to senators from both parties.

Senators involved in that chamber’s bi-partisan negotiations over a bill Corbett believes is too costly and industry figures say over-regulates them, estimate that the governor’s proposal has fewer than 10 supporters in that chamber, far short of the needed 26.
Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa, D-Allegheny, said: “I understand the governor has his view, I will share with you, our members are not supportive of a total pre-emption. We are working on a modified pre-emption, trying to reach a consensus.”

As to the Senate vote count on pre-emption, Costa said: “If they had the votes for it, we wouldn’t be negotiating on it. I don’t believe they [Senate Republicans] want the pre-emption in the manner that the Gov and House have put in place and we are working to come up with something that creates jobs and preserves the environment.”
Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware, said it was important to balance the local and state role in land-use regulation: “Both state and local governments have legitimate roles to play in regulating the use of land involved in the extraction and transportation of natural gas in Pennsylvania.
“The challenge is finding the appropriate line separating the areas of local control from the areas of state control. We will continue working to strike the appropriate balance as we advance legislation related to the Marcellus Shale industry.”