Enforcement: Conservative group sees politics in play in EPA’s Dimock retreat — Tuesday, July 30, 2013 — www.eenews.net
July 31, 2013
FossilFuelSubsidy_201112.pdf
July 18, 2013
Report_FossilFuelSubsidy_201112.pdf.
Pennsylvania Fossil Fuel Subsidies:
An Overview
by
Christina Simeone, Director, PennFuture Energy Center
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Pennsylvania taxpayers may not know they are subsidizing the production and use of fossil fuels. In fact,
Pennsylvania is subsidizing fossil fuels at a cost of almost $2.9 billion per year.1,2 Use of these fuels burdens
taxpayers with additional non-monetized externalities such as air, land and water pollution and the associated
negative human health and property impacts. Since many of these subsidies were passed years or decades ago,
Pennsylvania’s current policymakers may not all be aware that these subsidies exist or understand their cumulative
impacts.
The federal government has long subsidized the production and use of fossil fuels to the tune of billions of
dollars per year, and to the considerable benefit of these extremely profitable and mature industries. Federal level
subsidies reduce the amount of taxable income that fossil fuel companies are required to report to Pennsylvania for
state taxes. Further, Pennsylvania tacks on additional subsidies such as tax breaks and grant programs that benefit
the use or production of fossil fuels. With respect to energy, there is no free and competitive market, least of all in
Pennsylvania.
The state’s fossil fuel subsidies come primarily in the form of tax exemptions, with only a handful of applicable tax
credits and grant programs. There are exemptions for the use of fossil fuels, such as exempting gasoline purchase
from Sales and Use Tax, which make these fuels more attractive by lowering their costs to the consumer. There are
also exemptions that benefit distributors of fossil fuels, such as exempting natural gas sales from the Gross Receipts
Tax, thereby reducing the tax burden on distribution companies, and increasing their profitability. Producers of
fossil fuels also enjoy subsidies, like the Sales and Use Tax exemption for the purchase of mining equipment,
which reduces costs to coal mining companies and increasing profitability. Ironically, Pennsylvania subsidizes the
purchase of pollution control equipment to help users of fossil fuels pay for the cost of cleaning the air and water
fouled by these very fossil fuels.
This preliminary overview of Pennsylvania’s fossil fuel subsidies is intended to promote discussion and perhaps
even a reexamination of Pennsylvania’s overall incentive strategy with respect to energy. This report should be
read as an introduction to the issue of Pennsylvania’s fossil fuel subsidies; additional research and analysis is
required.
Shale Gas Impacts on Northeastern PA
July 5, 2013
Map of Well pads, pipelines, chemical spills, compressor stations….et.al. in Northeastern PA
You can zoom in and click on the symbols
and get an idea what the various symbols are for.
and get an idea what the various symbols are for.
Here is a legend:
Yellow pushpins = permitted pads;
Yellow gas stations = fracked or producing wells;
Red pushpins = compressor stations
Brown pushpins = pipeline impact areas
(only areas requiring permits – road or stream xing, wetlands, etc.)
Brown circles = permitted hydrostatic testing discharge points;
Blue drops = alternate waste management pits for fracked water
Black pushpins = administrative violations, spill, contamination
Wavy water = water withdrawal point
I will try to add this legend to the map itself.
BH
Sunday Times review of DEP drilling records reveals water damage, murky testing methods – News – The Times-Tribune
May 19, 2013
Sunday Times review of DEP drilling records reveals water damage, murky testing methods – News – The Times-Tribune.
First of two parts
State environmental regulators determined that oil and gas development damaged the water supplies for at least 161 Pennsylvania homes, farms, churches and businesses between 2008 and the fall of 2012, according to a cache of nearly 1,000 letters and enforcement orders written by Department of Environmental Protection officials and obtained by The Sunday Times.
The determination letters are sent to water supply owners who ask state inspectors to investigate whether oil and gas drilling activities have polluted or diminished the flow of water to their wells.
Interactive Map: http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/gas-drilling-complaints-map-1.1490926
Inspectors declared the vast majority of complaints – 77 percent of 969 records – unfounded, lacking enough evidence to tie them definitively to drilling or caused by a different source than oil and gas exploration, like legacy pollution, natural conditions or mining.
One in six investigations across the roughly five-year period – 17 percent of the records – found that oil and gas activity disrupted water supplies either temporarily or seriously enough to require companies to replace the spoiled source.
The letters confirming contamination or water loss from drilling and the orders that require companies to fix the damage provide what is likely the best official count of the industry’s impact on individual water supplies in Pennsylvania because the state does not track the disruptions.
The Sunday Times requested the records in late 2011, and received access to them late last year after a state appeals court ruled that the DEP had to release the documents regardless of whether it was hard for the agency to find them in its files.
While the records compiled by the newspaper offer a more complete tally of the number of affected properties than was previously available, the count is not exhaustive:
PA DEP Determination Letters – damascus citizens for sustainability
May 14, 2013
PA DEP Determination Letters – damascus citizens for sustainability.
“The Department investigation indicates that gas well drilling has impacted your water supply.”
Despite the oft-repeated gas industry canard that there are no confirmed cases of fracking contaminating water supplies, the following Determination Letters from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection clearly state that “gas well drilling” has contaminated wells in Bradford County, in municipalities such as Granville, Tuscarora, Terry, Orwell, Wilmot and Monroe Townships, and in Alba Boro.
The letters posted so far were obtained by Right to Know requests to the PA DEP filed by Vera Scroggins of “Citizens for Clean Water” located in Susquehanna County.
GDACC 
