September 29, 2009

During a press conference announcing the timing of the budget Governor Rendell responded to a question about the proposed leasing of additional state lands.  The reporter asked, "A couple of weeks ago you said you had substantially reduced the amount of leasing on state forests for natural gas.  Could you go over that figure?"

The Governor responded, "Well the original proposal was over 200,000 acres and we're now down to 80,000 acres. And 80,000 acres is what John Quigley (DCNR Secretary) and John Hanger (DEP Secretary) tell me we can do without materially affecting our environment or the natural beauty of PA. I know there were questions raised about FRAC water disposal.  We're working on all of those questions.  This is a typical issue where there has to be a line drawn and a balance created. I'm not sure the shale is the goldmine the Sunday Patriot made it sound like but it is certainly a tremendous source of new jobs and new economic development and new wealth for the Commonwealth.  That has to be balanced. We can't stop private landowners from selling their land, but we have employed a company that does seismic imaging to try to find out where the most valuable shale is and when we do that we believe we'll be able to lease less acres but the value of the acres because of the seismic imaging will go up because the companies will know there is a much greater certainty of a return.  So, I think we'll wind up leasing less than 80,000 acres but we'll get a higher price per acre because of the seismic imaging."