From: Arthur Clark <fsck100 <-at-> gmail.com>
To:
Sent: Mon, October 12, 2009 11:35:38 AM
Subject: Parks & Forests, DEP funding decimated by budget deal

PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY

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In stark contrast to the upbeat political rhetoric in Harrisburg on Friday, a look at the actual budget numbers reveals devastating cuts to key environmental agencies and programs.  PA Environment Digest reports that DCNR has been cut by 18.5%, or $21,000,000.00.  State Parks funding takes the lion's share of the massive cuts with a reduction of 15.6%, or $9,300,000.00.  Permanent closure of some state parks now appears to be inevitable according to a source in state government.

Forest pest management funds, essential as the state's forests are attacked by thehemlock

woolly adelgid and emerald ash borer, are decimated with a cut of over 55%.

The assault on DCNR's programs and lands does not stop there.  The real show-stopper is a whopping $60 million grab by the legislature out of the Oil & Gas Fund.  The Oil & Gas Fund was established in 1955 to fund land acquisition and other conservation priorities.  That $60 million is to be replenished by leasing more state forest land for gas drilling.  More roads, forest fragmentation, noise, air & water pollution and groundwater contamination on our precious state forests, all so the legislature can loot the money from DCNR and put it into the General Fund.

And none of it is remotely necessary.  

The budget deal does not include a new severance tax on natural gas production.  Pennsylvania is the only gas-producing state without a severance tax.  The tax was widely supported by environmental organizations, many legislators, local municipalities and sportsmen's groups.  The proposed tax was also supported by Governor Rendell until he suddenly reversed his position on the tax in late August.  The severance tax was expected to raise over $100 million for this budget year, far exceeding the $60 million to be looted from the DCNR Oil & Gas Fund under the budget deal.

These cuts seem huge and devastating, but they pale in comparison to the enormous 26.7%, $58 million, cut in DEP's funding.  This reduction is so massive that the full implications are not clear yet.  PA Environment Digest reports that over 300 DEP staff may be cut.  The effects could be dire as DEP is faced with a tsunami of new oil & gas drilling across the state.  The combination of the huge budget cuts and massive expansion of oil & gas wells requiring permitting and inspections & enforcement appears to set the stage for the de facto deregulation of oil & gas drilling.

It gets worse.

Not included in this year's budget is the plan by some in the PA Senate to raise an additional $180 million for next year's state budget by forcing DCNR to lease even more land for oil & gas drilling.  That leasing would be on top of the acreage leased for this budget year and the 660,000 acres already under lease.  It goes without saying the acreage needed to raise $180 million would be so large that it would have a devastating impact on our state forests.  Start getting ready now, this year's budget battle will probably be dwarfed by the next one.  As one Capitol insider put it regarding the Senate leadership's scorched earth approach to DEP's and DCNR's budget, "There's no adult supervision."

If you're wondering what the good news is, there isn't any.  Don't be fooled by upbeat statements coming from the governor or others, this budget is catastrophic for our environmental stewardship.  We all need to start planning and organizing for next year's budget battle now.  Today.  Otherwise, we will look back on this year and think that it wasn't so bad, when clearly it's catastrophic.

Arthur Clark

State Public Lands Chair
Sierra Club Pennsylvania Chapter