Norquist's Pledge Didn't Stop Impact 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 13, 2012 | 12:34 PM

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Grover Norquist

The Patriot-News takes a look at how Grover Norquist’s much-heralded “Taxpayer Protection Pledge” could not stop the new natural gas drilling impact feefrom becoming law:

Pennsylvania will shortly have an impact fee for Marcellus Shale.
Grover Norquist called it a tax, but Pennsylvania Republicans passed it anyway.
Gov. Tom Corbett, who signed Norquist’s pledge, plans to sign the Marcellus bill, too, according to his spokesmen.
Political reality trumps ideology.
In an election year, Pennsylvania Republicans determined inaction on Marcellus Shale carried far greater risks than being accused of raising taxes.

The story includes details of an interesting email exchange between the Commonwealth Foundation’s Matthew Brouillette and Lancaster County Republican Scott Boyd, who signed the pledge but supported the impact fee.