Harrisburg – Revenue from natural resource extraction – including natural gas – is the largest source of income in the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s budget.
Since 2008, the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources collected $1.23 billion on rental and royalty payments stemming from gas and oil extraction on state forest lands.
President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to ban new oil and gas drilling on public lands, sometimes stipulating the prohibition would be for federal land only.
While game commission spokesman Travis Lau acknowledged that a loss of revenue generated by natural gas development would have a major impact on the agency, the PGC doesn’t believe a change in administration will result in that happening. In 2018, the agency derived more than $93 million of its $189.9 million budget from natural resources and Rights of Ways – including gas drilling.
“We believe his plan only deals with federal public lands, and would not affect state lands – in our case game lands,” Lau said.
The agency’s director of the Bureau of Wildlife Habitat Management, Pete Sussenbach, said between 30-40% of the agency’s annual revenue comes from gas drilling leases. He added the PGC has a “tremendous amount” of land that has yet to drilled, and any ban on new gas leases would be significant.
“Right now the new administration is looking at federal land, so I don’t think it will be a game-changer for us, unless that changes,” Sussenbach said.
Revenue from gas leases has allowed the PGC to focus on strategic land acquisitions – properties that would improve hunter access, for example – along with infrastructure improvements, among other things. At a time when timber markets are depressed, Sussenbach said gas royalties have helped make much of the improvements possible.
“We do timber sales primarily to create wildlife habitat, but with depressed markets and access for timber companies to get into some game lands, such sales wouldn’t be possible if we weren’t able to improve existing roads to allow them to get in,” he said.
Revenue from DCNR’s Oil and Gas Lease Fund is used for a myriad of things, including paying for wildfire costs, salaries of the individuals that work with the gas leases, and equipment used to take care of the land that department manages. According to DCNR spokesman Terry Brady, the agency received $767 million in royalty payments from 2008 to October 2020, not counting bonus and rental revenue. There are 88 leases on state forest land, totaling 251,233 acres, plus seven leases for gas storage on 69,456 acres.
When asked how much is at stake from a potential public land ban on new gas drilling operations, Brady replied “Comments or assumptions on a plan we have not seen at this time would be premature.”
Still, Brady added the agency would be supportive of at least one element in Biden’s climate plan.
According to the plan outlined on his website, Biden pledges to require aggressive methane pollution limits for new and existing oil and gas operations in order to reduce emissions.
In an emailed response, Brady said any additional costs incurred to capture methane would be the responsibility of gas drilling companies and not DCNR. It wouldn’t impact revenue, he added, unless companies elect to shut down wells, noting that it’s too early to speculate without any details.
Still, Brady said DCNR could support the concept.
Methane reductions on all assets would be a welcomed action to help combat climate change,” he said.
- This story originally appeared in PA Outdoor News.
