PUC Announces Annual Impact Fee Distributions

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission announced that it collected $179.6 million in natural gas impact fees for calendar year 2023, which will be distributed in early July. Counties and municipalities directly affected by drilling will receive $100 million of these funds. To find your township’s distribution, click here and choose “Reports,” and then “County and Municipality Disbursement,” and finally “2023” from the drop-down menu.     

“Pennsylvania’s first-in-the-nation Natural Gas Impact Fee represents a forward-thinking policy that requires companies to send funding to affected communities instead of purely to state capitals,” said PSATS Executive Director David Sanko. “By ensuring that townships and other areas impacted by natural gas drilling receive their fair share of funding, the Impact Fee supports essential projects like road and bridge repairs, public safety, affordable housing, and infrastructure improvements.” 

The total amount collected is about $100 million less than the 2022 distribution, primarily due to a much lower average price of natural gas in 2023 ($2.74 per MMBtu) versus the average price in 2022 ($6.64 per MMBtu), which generated a lesser impact fee payment for each well in 2023, along with the addition of only 423 new wells. Since 2012, more than $2.7 billion has been generated from natural gas impact fees. Click here for the press release.