Governor's Budget a Mixed Bag for Conservationists

Susan Phillips

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Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

February 7, 2012 | 4:53 PM

Susan Phillips / StateImpact Pennsylvania

A sign posted in Susquehannock state forest.

Governor Corbett’s 2012 budget proposal shows a projected decrease of more than $3 million from mineral lease royalties. That’s the first decrease since 2003, before the Marcellus Shale rush took off. The reason for the reduction is partly due to depressed natural gas prices, and partly due to a moratorium on new gas leases in state forests. Environmentalists had worried the Governor would open more state forests to drilling. But that’s not on the books yet. All told, the state’s Oil and Gas Lease Fund has about $22 million dollars less to distribute than last year.
The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources will get almost $70 million dollars from the fund. That accounts for about one third of the department’s entire budget, which worries some conservationists.
Former DCNR secretary John Quigley served under Governor Ed Rendell. Quigley says money from the Oil and Gas Fund was originally diverted to DCNR during his watch to keep the state parks open. But he says bankrolling the department with lease money is a slippery slope.

“That’s the problem,” says Quigley. “Your conservation agency shouldn’t be dependent on cutting down trees and drilling for natural gas to keep the lights on.”
Quigley says the department used to get the bulk of its money directly from the general fund. Timber and state park fees also generate revenue for DCNR, as well as federal grants. About 700,000 acres of state forest land has been leased to drilling companies. Much of that is in North Central Pennsylvania, where the Marcellus Shale yields what’s called “dry” gas. Many of the drillers are scaling back those operations for the more lucrative “wet” gas available in areas where the state does not own the land. So leasing more state land may just be a matter of waiting until the market improves.
For some, the fact that Corbett has held off on leasing more forest land is small comfort. The Governor wants to take money usually earmarked for forest conservation and open space and put it all into the general fund. The Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund, which uses proceeds from real estate transfer taxes, has been zeroed out in his 2012 proposal.
Quigley says Corbett’s new budget also cuts DCNR’s forest research and forestry regeneration.
“The Department of Conservation isn’t even planting trees,” says Quigley.