March 25, 2009

House Republicans don't like Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell's plan to slap a "severance tax" on natural gas produced by drilling in some areas of Marcellus shale in Pennsylvania.

So they've come up with an alternative -- greatly expand the amount of state forest land where gas drilling can be done and then require the private drilling companies to pay the state a fee of $2,000 an acre. That could raise $260 million a year, far more than the $107 million that Mr. Rendell would raise with his new tax, the GOP said yesterday.

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