Senator Rafferty Drilling Response

In a prior post Troutrageous! urged folks to contact local and state legislators regarding the negative impact that opening up hundreds of thousands of acres of state forest lands to Marcellus Shale drilling operations.

While I'm certain this is a form reply, but at the very least I am comforted to see that Senator Rafferty holds similar environmental concerns over natural gas drilling on state forest lands.

The good parts:

"As you know from my environmental record, I want those responsible for damaging our environment to pay the price for reclamation and work to ensure that checks are in place to prevent same.

I am not in favor of gas drilling on state forest land. If a severance tax is imposed on this drilling, I have requested that a portion of these funds be given to the local host communities and an environmental stewardship fund be set aside for clean water safeguards. Additionally, the dollars form the same cannon be assigned to the General Fund where the Governor and the General Assembly could use the money to fund programs that are not environmental in nature."

Senator John C. Rafferty, Jr.

44th District

Alas, the latest version of the new (& long overdue) Pennsylvania budget appears to still include the opening of the state forest lands and no taxation on the natural gas extracted. Booooo!
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/63582092.html