Poll says Pennsylvania supports shale drilling - and gas tax

Pennsylvania voters, even Philadelphians, support Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling almost as strongly as they endorse calls to tax the gas, according to a new poll.

A Quinnipiac University poll released last week found that 63 percent of voters say there should be drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale because of the economic benefits. Thirty percent said there should not be drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale because of the environmental impact.

Support was strongest in Northwest Pennsylvania and weakest in Northeast Pennsylvania. In Philadelphia, support was 59 percent in favor and 33 percent opposed.

Voters support taxing natural gas, by 69 percent to 24 percent. Even Republicans support such a tax, 59 percent to 33 percent.

" 'Drill, baby, drill' is the call from Pennsylvania voters, and 'Tax, baby, tax' is the follow-up as voters see natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale as an economic plus more than an environmental negative," Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute in Connecticut, said in a statement.

The poll is the latest measure of public sentiment on shale-gas drilling to inform Pennsylvania legislators who are debating whether to approve a tax or impact fee on drilling. Gov. Corbett has strongly opposed a tax as a deterrent to growth.

During last year's legislative debate, rivals cited contradictory polls to buttress their positions.

When he was governor, Ed Rendell, who supported a production tax, cited a survey he commissioned that found that 78 percent of Pennsylvanians support a gas-severance tax, while only 14 percent oppose it.

That poll's overwhelming margin may have been influenced by the way the poll question was phrased - making it seem as if "large multinational gas-drilling companies from other states and other countries" were invading Pennsylvania to exploit the gas.

A Franklin and Marshall College poll in March 2010 indicated that only 35 percent of Pennsylvanians favor taxes on companies that extract natural gas. Nearly half - 49 percent - opposed a tax.

But the Franklin and Marshall poll, which concerned just taxation, did not try to describe the Marcellus Shale. The college's pollsters simply asked whether respondents supported "increasing taxes on companies that extract and sell natural gas."

Quinnipiac polled 1,277 registered voters by phone and asked: "Some people say there should be drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale because of the economic benefits. Others say there should not be drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale because of the environmental impact. Which comes closer to your point of view?"