Gas drilling may be issue in Pa. governor’s race

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

Some of the Democrats who are challenging Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett have significantly different views from the Republican on how to regulate and tax the state’s booming gas-drilling industry, and they’re trying to make it an issue with voters.

With Corbett taking a firm stance in favor of drilling, some experts are saying that Marcellus Shale gas is likely to be a campaign issue. But it’s not clear how much the drilling debate will matter to voters over the next year.

Corbett says current regulations protect the environment and that the state impact fee — the equivalent of a roughly 2 percent tax on sales — is enough. The half-dozen or so Democrats who are challenging him generally support tougher environmental regulations and a new 4 or 5 percent tax on production, similar to what many other energy-producing states impose.

The Democratic contenders include U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz; former state revenue secretary Tom Wolf; two former environmental protection secretaries who served in Gov. Ed Rendell’s administration, Katie McGinty and John Hanger; Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski; and state Treasurer Rob McCord. Others also are considering entering the race.

On Thursday, Schwartz tweeted, “it’s time to replace Gov. Corbett’s reckless shale policies with science-based projections,” and former state EPA secretaries McGinty and Hanger have featured drilling prominently in their campaigns.

But experts on political polling in the state said that many voters have mixed feelings on drilling and also are likely to be even more focused on other issues, such as education funding, abortion and the overall economy.

Joseph Morris, a pollster at Mercyhurst College in Erie, said the fact that most drilling is occurring in rural areas “out of sight for most Pennsylvanians” is important. Most people “have just a very high degree of uncertainty about the environmental impact,” he said.

An October Mercyhurst poll found 49 percent of the respondents were in favor of Marcellus Shale drilling, while 28 percent were opposed. But the poll also found that 61 percent of Pennsylvanians don’t believe that drilling companies “truly care about the environment,” and that 63 percent believe that “more regulations are needed.”

Morris said he thinks drilling “was probably more important when Corbett was running for governor the first time,” partly because the debate over issues, such as cuts to education funding, has grown.