With respect to the impact fee, why was the industry getting a free ride? Teachers were losing their jobs coincidently at the same time as the impact fee debate was going on, which didn’t help the situation.

Natural gas production from the Marcellus Shale continues to generate enormous amounts of state, county and local tax revenues, in addition to revenues from the newly-enacted bipartisan impact fee. Here’s more information about the revenues being generated, benefiting every Pennsylvanian, thanks to safe natural gas development.  The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) released impact fee revenue generated from unconventional natural gas wells through December 2011, exceeding projections by almost $25 million. The nearly $206 million in new revenue, as laid out in Act 13, is directed to the commonwealth and the 37 counties and nearly 1,500 municipalities where natural gas production is underway. The impact fee – which is in addition to the more than $1.6 billion Marcellus Shale operators have paid in taxes and road improvement investments over the past several years – represents a new revenue stream for communities where Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) member companies operate and further evidence that the economic benefits of natural gas development are touching every single resident of the Commonwealth.