Uh-oh

Beneath Pennsylvania's forests lies a treasure worth billions of dollars.

by Isaiah Thompson

Our capitol may be a cesspool of corruption — hello, Bonusgate — but we've got us a real nice state forest. Pennsylvania is one of nine states whose forests are certified "sustainable" by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

But even that proud jewel could get buried in the dung. Beneath Pennsylvania's forests, beneath a big piece of rock known as the Marcellus Shale, lies another treasure — natural gas, worth billions of dollars, some of it on state-owned land. Uh-oh.

For years, Gov. Ed Rendell and legislators have rubbed their hands in anticipation of this windfall. And during the 2009 budget wars, they did something completely unprecedented: Lawmakers ordered the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), which oversees state forests, to lease land to gas drillers to the tune of $60 million — which the state would keep.

That decision ignored the advice of former DCNR Secretary (and current Philly Parks and Rec czar) Michael DiBerardinis, who in a March 2009 memo warned that too much leasing would "scar the economic, scenic, ecological and recreational values of the forest," and that "a rush to drill threatens the certification of our state forests as sustainably managed."

They did it anyway.

Pennsylvania has now leased one-third of its entire forest to industry. Environmentally minded state reps (the so-called "Green Dog Democrats") say they agreed to the 2009 lease only on the condition that the legislature would leave DCNR alone in the next budget. But that deal, it seems, has already been broken. State Sen. Mary Jo White (R-21st District), chair of the Senate Environment Resources Committee, dropped the bomb in a December budget hearing: "It's my understanding ... that the [legislature has] ... an agreement with Gov. Rendell to transfer $180 million [from new DCNR lease sales] to the general fund in fiscal year 2010-2011."

Acting DCNR Secretary John Quigley responded that he had heard no such thing — but cautioned against leasing more forest. He pointed out that only three gas wells out of an anticipated several thousand have been built to tap the Marcellus Shale — and that's on land that's already leased.

"The potential of things to go wrong is going to explode in the future," he cautioned. A murmur went through the crowd. "Poor choice of words."