HARRISBURG, Pa. - The state Senate voted Tuesday to impose a fee on natural-gas drilling in Pennsylvania and expand regulations for the booming industry, a milestone in a debate that has raged in the Capitol for several years.
Senators voted 31-19 to approve the 174-page bill that would fund road work and environmental clean-ups and give local governments the power to decide if the fee would be imposed on their local wells.
"Could we have done better? Supposedly, but it has taken three years to get this far," said supporter Sen. John Wozniak, D-Cambria, among a handful who crossed party lines. "It is time to turn the page."
Opponents called it a giveaway to energy companies and said its environmental provisions were too weak.
"We could have built a little more certainty in this bill," said Sen. John Yudichak, D-Luzerne, who voted no. "I think Pennsylvanians deserve better than, `maybe they'll have clean water, maybe they'll have clean air.'"
The fee was projected by its authors to raise $180 million from the industry in the first year, with the amount rising in ensuing years as more Marcellus Shale wells are drilled.
"We have landed in a good spot," said Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, a central player in the lengthy negotiations that led to the vote. "Not at all in the place we started three years ago."
The Senate vote approved a conference committee report issued late Monday, and the House must also approve it before sending it to Gov. Tom Corbett. That vote could occur Tuesday night.
