DCNR Secretary: No Plans To Lease More Forest Land For Drilling

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 29, 2012 | 10:23 AM

Scott Detrow / StateImpact Pennsylvania

A drilling rig in the Tioga State Forest

Governor Corbett’s 2012-2013 budget does not include any plans to lease out additional state forest land for natural gas drilling. During yesterday’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources House budget hearing, Secretary Richard Allan said that won’t change any time soon.
Capitolwire has more:

The Corbett administration has put the idea of additional leasing of state forestland for natural gas development on the back-burner for now, officials said Tuesday.
Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Secretary Richard Allan said to his “personal knowledge,” the administration is not discussing lifting the moratorium Gov. Ed Rendell’s administration placed on leasing state-owned forestland.
During DCNR’s budget hearing before the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Greg Vitali, D-Delaware, cited a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review news report wherein a Corbett spokesman said the administration was considering lifting the moratorium.
“Could you tell me what you know about any plans to lift the moratorium on state forest leasing for gas drilling?” Vitali asked.
“To my knowledge, that statement is incorrect. I had inquired about that. But my personal knowledge is that we are not discussing additional leasing in state forests,” Allan responded.