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Imposing Impact Fees Just One Of Many Marcellus Shale Recommendations Approved

HARRISBURG, Pa. (CBS) -- Imposing impact fees is among the dozens of recommendations approved Friday by Governor Corbett's Marcellus Shale Commission on a wide range issues related to natural gas drilling. But the panel is offering few specifics.

Even Republicans joined the clamor for impact fees on drilling in the natural gas-rich Marcellus Shale regions during the spring session of the legislature. But Governor Corbett implored lawmakers to wait for the report of his Marcellus Shale Commission.

On Friday, the commission did vote to recommend impact fees, but the panel's chairman, Lt. Governor Jim Cawley, says the recommendation does not include a suggestion on how to assess the fees.

"We did not feel it appropriate to get down to that. What our charge was from the Governor was to determine whether or not there were uncompensated impacts that might require an impact fee – and in some cases we did, in fact, find that there are," Cawley says.

But Cawley says what that compensation looks like is a matter for the governor and lawmakers to decide.

Reported by Tony Romeo, KYW Newsradio

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