NEAT NUMERALS

5 Rep. Greg Vitali has introduced House Bill 2235 to put a five-year moratorium on leasing additional state forest land for Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling.

“Our state forests can’t be viewed as a cash cow,” Rep. Vitali said. “We shouldn’t lease another square inch until we fully evaluate the impact of drilling.”

His legislation would give the Pa. Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources sole discretion after Dec. 31, 2015, to determine if state forests can withstand additional natural gas exploration. It also would require DCNR to issue a report every year about the impact of natural gas exploration and drilling on water, soil and air quality, plants and wildlife, tourism, fishing and hunting.

About 1.5 million acres of state forest is above the Marcellus Shale, with almost 700,000 acres available for leasing. Private interests own the subsurface rights in a portion of the remaining 800,000 acres.

2.8M

More than $2.8 million in revenue was generated for the state from timber sales and oil/gas activity on the Elk State Forest last year.

District Forester Jeanne Wambaugh from the Emporium office said that 14 timber sales brought a little over $2.4 million, while leases ad royalties for oil and gas wells and pipelines produced just under $400,000.

814

There will come a time when the region’s familiar 814 area code for telephone numbers will have to change.

The Pa. Public Utility Commission has scheduled public hearings in State College and Erie to receive input on five proposals to deal with the fact that existing phone numbers with the 814 prefix will be exhausted in about two years.

10.40

Pennsylvania has cut $10.40 from the monthly Supplemental Security Income checks of couples and $5.30 from singles. The state’s share of SSI payments is now as low as federal law allows.

Cuts are the result of the long-delayed state 2009-10 budget compromise, which included a seven-percent reduction in the SSI program, which helps 340,000 of the state’s poorest residents who are elderly or disabled.

18,000 A plan to rescue the Chesapeake Bay from its growing status as a dumping ground for upstream pollutants makes so much sense that it’s sure to be shredded by self-interest and politics. Experts say among the side benefits of the proposal would be at least 18,000 new jobs and 500 million gallons of fuel annually.

The study, conducted by the Pa. Dept. of Agriculture and the Chesapeake Bay Commission, calls for planting switchgrass, barley, rye and fast-growing tree such as poplar and willow on unused fields along the watershed.

Cover crops and perennial grasses control erosion, absorb excess fertilizer from far fields and capture carbon dioxide. The harvesting of the biofuels would reduce dependence on fossil fuels.