In April 2014, the Joint Legislative Air and Water Pollution Control and Conservation Committee held a hearing on several proposed bills that would impact the pipeline approval and oversight process of intrastate pipelines. The Pipeline Safety Coalition, along with several local land trusts, drafted a memo (download below) to the committee with specific recommendations regarding the siting process and specifically Senate Bills 504 and 506.
Urgent! Tell Senators: Don’t let parks be sold for quick cash
The Pennsylvania Senate is poised to vote on a bill that, depending on how the land was acquired, will allow county and local governments to sell local parks for easy cash. A vote on the bill could take place the week of October 1. If the bill passes, it goes to Governor Corbett for his signature.
House Bill 2224 puts much-loved parks at risk of being sold for short-term gain or on a political whim. It repeals longstanding rules that ensure government cannot sell parks and other greenspaces if the lands benefit the public.
Please tell your Senator to amend HB 2224 to protect our parks. Contact them at their district office THIS WEEK.
In addition to putting our parks and greenspaces at risk, the bill:
- Violates the trust and good faith of landowners who donated property for a dollar or sold property to the government at a bargain price with assurances that the land would be used for a public purpose.
- Forces generous people to second guess whether to sell their land at a bargain price for a good cause — a new park — because it shows that government is not to be trusted with such gifts.
- Discards the fair and balanced process traditionally used to determine whether public land can be sold.
Legislation that assists municipalities in achieving the reuse of abandoned, blighted, unused and unusable properties in municipal ownership is welcome, but such legislation should not put the parks and greenspaces – places that people have trusted would always be there — at risk of being sold for short sighted gain or political purposes.
Marcellus Shale Bill Passed
Governor Corbett signed Act 13 of 2012, the “Marcellus shale bill” or House Bill 1950, into law on 2/14/2012.
Act 13’s proponents point to the improvements the law makes in the regulation of natural gas activities, arguing that the law provides protections far superior to those that otherwise would have been provided under the status quo. The bill’s opponents point to the bill’s deficiencies, arguing that legislators could have done much better and that, in the case of local zoning control, the law is a step backward.
The Act amends Title 58 (Oil and Gas) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, “providing for an unconventional gas well fee and for transfers from the Oil and Gas Lease Fund; providing for distribution of fees and transfers; establishing the Natural Gas Energy Development Program; consolidating the Oil and Gas Act with modifications and additions relating to definitions, well permits, permit objections, comments by municipalities and storage operators, well location restrictions, well site restoration, protection of water supplies, notification to public drinking water systems, containment for unconventional wells, transportation records regarding wastewater fluids, corrosion control requirements, gathering lines, well control emergency response, hydraulic fracturing chemical discharge requirements, bonding, air containment emissions, public nuisances, enforcement orders, well control emergency cost recovery, penalties, civil penalties, inspection and production of materials, witnesses, depositions and rights of entry, third party liability and inspection reports; providing for local ordinances relating to oil and gas operations and for responsibility for fee; making an appropriation; and making a related repeal.”
The Pennsylvania House voted 101-90 on 2/8/2012 to adopt the conference report on House Bill 1950, the Marcellus shale legislation. Being a conference report, no amendments were allowed, only an up or down vote. The vote largely followed party lines with 99 Republicans and 2 Democrats voting “yes” and 10 Republicans and 80 Democrats voting “no”. The conference report was adopted by the Senate on 2/6/2012 in a 31-19 vote (26 Republicans and 5 Democrats in favor and 4 Republicans and 15 Democrats opposed).
House Roll Call on Conference Report
Senate Roll Call on Conference Report
As natural gas industry operations take from our natural resources, the bill provides funding for Growing Greener-type projects to invest back into the conservation, restoration and enhancement of Pennsylvania’s land, water, wildlife and communities including the following:
Growing Greener – impact fee share: The Environmental Stewardship Fund, the funding source for Growing Greener receives dedicated infusions of cash from a 10% share of the 40% statewide share of the impact fee. Senate Republicans estimate that this will generate $14M total for 2011 (retroactively) and 2012, $29M in 2013, $46M in 2014 and $48M in 2015.
Growing Greener – OGLF share: The Environmental Stewardship Fund also receives $20M from the Oil and Gas Lease Fund in 2013 and $35M in 2014 and beyond — assuming there is sufficient money in the fund after DCNR gets its allocation, which is determined in the annual budget and fiscal code process. It appears that this will require annual vigilance to ensure that the funding intent is honored.
CFA: From the statewide share of the impact fee, 20% will go to the Commonwealth Finance Agency (CFA), an entity controlled by legislative leaders. This pot of money is projected to grow to $26M annually by 2015. It will be up to the political process to determine allocations between allowed uses, but money must be used for the following:
- Acid mines: damage, abatement and cleanup and mine reclamation, with priority given to projects which recycle and treat water for use in drilling operations.
- Orphan or abandoned oil and gas well plugging.
- Complying with the Pennsylvania Sewage Facilities Act Planning acquisition, development, rehabilitation and repair of greenways, recreational trails, open space, parks and beautification projects.
- Programs to establish baseline water quality data on private water supplies.
- Watershed programs and related projects.
- Up to 25% of funds may be utilized for flood-control projects.
County Initiatives: From the statewide share of the impact fee, 15% will be distributed to counties proportionately based on the population of the county. Like the county initiatives under the Growing Greener 2 bond issue, each county will make its own decisions regarding use of the funds within the rules established by the state. The funds must be used for any of the following: the planning, acquisition, development, rehabilitation and repair of greenways, recreational trails, open space, natural areas, community conservation and beautification projects, community and heritage parks and water resource management. Funds may be used to acquire lands for recreational or conservation purposes and land damaged or prone to draining by storms or flooding.
General Limitation: All or most of the funds distributed as described above may “not be used for the purpose of public relations, outreach not directly related to project implementation, communications, lobbying or litigation.”
Land Acquisition Requirement: Funds may not be used by an authorized organization “for land acquisition unless the authorized organization has obtained the written consent of the county and municipality in which the land is situated.”
Call Your Senators to Stop HB2224
The Senate may take a final vote on HB2224 on Wednesday, October 3. Please call your Senators ASAP at their Harrisburg offices and tell them to oppose HB2224.
The Senate voted 29-20 on Monday to amend HB2224, adding a requirement of a public hearing before sale of public land. This requirement, though welcome, misses the mark. (Because of varying motivations, one can’t determine a Senator’s position by looking at the amendment vote.)
PALTA’s 10/1/2012 letter to Senators can be found in the letters section of the resource page.
Tell Legislators: Don’t Let Our Parks be Sold for Quick Cash – Oppose HB 2224
HB 2224 would radically reshape Pennsylvania law and, in doing so, make it easy to sell many of our parklands for quick cash. It doesn’t matter that a park has been used and loved for decades or even centuries. The bill would allow a local municipality or county to – depending on the arcane details of how a park was established –undo the park (and all the work that went into creating it) in a single vote.
The Pennsylvania Senate is poised to vote on the bill the week of 10/15. If it passes, it could move with lightning speed to the House for a final vote. Tell your Senator and Representative to oppose HB 2224. Contact them in their district officesTHIS WEEK.
Talking points:
- The severe and unintended consequences for parks far outweigh any benefit that the bill might deliver. The bill needs to go back to the drawing board.
- Parks should be protected from political whims, the settling of political scores and the temptation to sell for quick and easy cash. For centuries parks have had such protections with the law requiring fair and balanced court oversight to prevent the sale of parklands that still serve their public purpose. HB 2224 would toss out this centuries-old law.
- HB 2224 senselessly would set protections for parks based on how they were acquired, not on whether people use or enjoy them. People don’t care how their park was acquired; they do care about its future. Safeguards for parks shouldn’t depend on the method of acquisition decades or centuries ago.
- If there is need to make it easier for boroughs to sell non-parklands — lands not used by the public (for example, parking areas for road equipment or salt domes), park advocates support that. But any legislation should ensure continued protections for parklands, no matter how they came to be parkland.
- HB 2224 has never had a public hearing. It has never been subject to scrutiny by experts in public trust law or park history. The issues should receive such review and scrutiny before further action by the General Assembly.
Notes:
- The Senate amended HB 2224 the week of October 1, making a few minor improvements but failing to adequately address the fundamental flaws and unintended consequences of the bill.
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