False Choice

I learned this one from the pros.

by Isaiah Thompson

I hate making decisions. Easy, hard, big, small — I hate 'em all. Give me a choice, and I'll duck it. But I've got a new plan: Every time I've got to decide something, anything at all, that I don't want to, I'm going to call it a "false choice."

Brilliant, is it not? Yes or no? False choice! Coming or going? False choice! Take it, or leave it? To be, or nor to be? Should I stay, or should I go? False choices all! I learned this one from the pros.

In negotiating last year's budget, Gov. Ed Rendell and the legislature faced a slew of tough choices, including whether to tax the massive boom in drilling into the Marcellus Shale, a geological formation beneath much of Pennsylvania that contains billions of dollars worth of natural gas. Their answer?

False choice!

Instead of taxing drillers, the legislature required that the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) raise $60 million by leasing state forest for drilling. Environmentalist lawmakers signed on to that plan after being told that, if they agreed to the $60 million in leases in 2009, Rendell would drop a proposal to raise $180 million more from leasing state forests in 2010.

Their understanding was that this year, we could tax drilling instead of leasing more land. False choice!

Last week, I reported that, no matter what they told the greens, lawmakers appeared to have a deal in place to lease more forest in 2010, anyway. This week, there's a new possibility: Rendell might authorize the lease himself — even before the budget passes. And even though, on Tuesday, he announced he also wants to tax drillers, after all.

He can OK the leases — if he wants to. "The governor does not need legislative approval," says state Rep. Greg Vitali (D-Delaware), who is seeking a moratorium on leasing. "He could do it tomorrow."

Rendell's office confirms that, yes, he's considering that option. In other words: Rather than choosing between taxing drilling and leasing land, Rendell chooses both. Says spokesman Michael Smith: "It's what the governor calls, a 'false choice.'"

He's right. Rendell doesn't have to choose. But considering that his own DCNR secretaries have expressed concerns about the impact drilling will have on the land the state has already leased — not to mention what it might lease in the future — as well as the widespread worry that the state simply isn't equipped to regulate the coming boom, maybe he should. After all, it's easier to trade a forest for a buck than vice versa. Sure, there are false choices; but there are also bad decisions.