State Rep. Mike Sturla of Lancaster joined 79 other state representatives today in calling on Gov. Tom Corbett to halt the lease of state forestland above the Marcellus Shale for natural gas drilling. In a statement, the legislators said the remaining unleased acreage is “environmentally sensitive and drilling will have irreversible and harmful consequences.”
The legislators urged Corbett to reconsider his plans to lift a leasing moratorium that had been in place since late last year.
“About 725,000 of the 1.5 million acres of state forest above the Marcellus Shale play are already available to gas drillers, and that’s too much,” said Rep. Greg Vitali, a Democratic from Delaware County. “The remaining acreage includes old growth forests, high-value ecosystems and habitats for rare and endangered species.”
