PRINTER'S NO. 2119
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
HOUSE BILL
No.
1601
Session of
2017
INTRODUCED BY HANNA, GODSHALL, GAINEY, CALTAGIRONE, D. COSTA,
THOMAS, ROZZI, MADDEN, GOODMAN, BARBIN, STURLA AND COMITTA,
JUNE 22, 2017
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES AND ENERGY,
JUNE 22, 2017
AN ACT
Amending Title 58 (Oil and Gas) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated
Statutes, in Oil and Gas Lease Fund, further providing for
definitions, establishing the Public Natural Resources Trust
Fund and further providing for funds; and making related
repeals.
The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
hereby enacts as follows:
Section 1. Section 2501 of Title 58 of the Pennsylvania
Consolidated Statutes is amended by adding a definition to read:
§ 2501. Definitions.
The following words and phrases when used in this chapter
shall have the meanings given to them in this section unless the
context clearly indicates otherwise:
* * *
"Trust fund." The Public Natural Resources Trust Fund
established in section 2502 (relating to Public Natural
Resources Trust Fund).
Section 2. Sections 2502 and 2505 of Title 58 are amended to
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read:
§ 2502. [(Reserved).] Public Natural Resources Trust Fund.
(a) Establishment.--The Public Natural Resources Trust Fund
is established as a special fund in the State Treasury.
(b) Revenue sources.--In addition to the transfers
authorized in paragraph (1), the trust fund shall include money
appropriated by the General Assembly, money received from the
Federal Government and grants or donations from other sources.
Interest and any other earnings shall remain in the trust fund.
Gifts and donations of marketable securities may be held or
disposed of for cash at the option of the State Treasurer. The
cash receipts of gifts and donations of cash or capital assets
and marketable securities disposed of for cash must be credited
immediately to the principal of the trust fund. When marketable
securities are disposed of for cash, the amount to be credited
to the trust fund shall be the value of the marketable
securities at the time of the gift or donation. The following
apply:
(1) Beginning with the 2017-2018 fiscal year and every
year thereafter, all rents and royalties paid into the Oil
and Gas Lease Fund in excess of $70,000,000 shall be
transferred to the trust fund.
(2) Disbursements from the trust fund shall be made only
when the balance of the trust fund exceeds $700,000,000.
(c) Balance.--Money in the trust fund not expended or
distributed in the fiscal year in which they were made available
shall not lapse and shall be available for use pursuant to this
section in the next fiscal year.
(d) Disposition.--
(1) For fiscal year 2017-2018 through the fiscal year
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following the fiscal year in which the principal of the trust
fund exceeds $700,000,000, of the remaining rents and
royalties paid into the Oil and Gas Lease Fund after any
transfer under subsection (b)(1):
(i) The department shall allocate 57% as follows:
(A) Forty percent for the department's community
recreation and conservation program for grant funding
of projects that meet the purposes set forth in
subsection (e).
(B) Sixty percent for use by the department for
projects on State park and State forest land that
meet the purposes set forth in subsection (e).
(ii) Forty-three percent shall be transferred to the
Environmental Stewardship Fund, of which:
(A) Sixty-five percent shall be for use by the
Department of Environmental Protection for projects
that meet the purposes set forth in subsection (e).
(B) Thirty-five percent shall be for use by the
Department of Agriculture for farmland preservation
projects, not to exceed $15,000,000 in a fiscal year.
(2) For the fiscal year following the fiscal year in
which the principal of the trust fund exceeds $700,000,000
and each fiscal year thereafter, the department may allocate
from the trust fund an amount up to the amount of interest
income derived from investment of money in the trust fund
during the preceding fiscal year. The allocation under this
paragraph is subject to the State Treasurer certifying in the
financial report required under subsection (h) that making
the allocation will not reduce the principal of the trust
fund.
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(3) The department shall allocate the money available
under paragraph (2) in the same proportion as amounts
allocated under paragraph (1).
(4) A disposition of money under this subsection that is
inconsistent with the provisions of paragraph (1), (2) or (3)
may be made through approval of a separate appropriations
bill by a vote of two-thirds of the members elected to the
Senate and the House of Representatives.
(e) Purposes.--The money in the trust fund may only be used
for the following purposes:
(1) Public land conservation.
(2) Public recreation.
(3) Watershed protection.
(4) Acid mining drainage abatement and maintenance and
operation of existing acid mining drainage projects.
(5) Heritage area projects.
(6) Conservation landscape initiatives of the
department.
(7) Farmland preservation.
(8) Greenways.
(9) Green infrastructure for flood mitigation.
(10) Reforestation and urban canopy projects.
(11) Abandoned well plugging.
(12) Habitat restoration.
(13) Monitoring and mitigation of impacts or damage to
State land caused by activity related to oil and gas
development.
(14) Acquisition of replacement land and buffers to
offset or prevent harm to State land caused by activity
related to oil and gas development.
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(15) Acquisition of oil, gas and other mineral rights
located under State land.
(16) Educational programming by the department and grant
recipients of the department, with a focus on science-based
natural resource conservation.
(17) Scientific research related to the other purposes
listed under this subsection.
(18) The annual audit required under subsection (j).
(19) The trust fund reports required under this section.
(f) Limitation.--Money in the trust fund may not be used to
fund maintenance or operating expenses, unless the expenses are
directly related to acid mining drainage projects existing as of
the effective date of this subsection.
(g) Supplemental funding.--Money in the trust fund shall
supplement funding from the General Fund, including the sources
of funding for the purposes listed in subsection (e). Money in
the trust fund may not be used to supplant existing General Fund
appropriations to the department or to any other agency of the
Commonwealth.
(h) Financial report.--The State Treasurer shall complete
and submit an annual financial report of the trust fund to the
Governor, the Attorney General and the Auditor General. The
report shall be submitted within 30 days of the end of the first
full fiscal year following the effective date of this subsection
and within 30 days of the end of each fiscal year thereafter.
The report shall contain the following:
(1) A statement of the principal then held in the trust
fund and any changes in the principal since the report of the
prior fiscal year.
(2) A statement of the trust fund income received during
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the fiscal year in question.
(3) A statement of the investments then held in the
trust fund, including descriptions and respective values of
the investments.
(4) Any other information determined by the State
Treasurer to reflect a full and complete disclosure of the
financial operations of the trust fund.
(i) Expenditure report.--The department shall complete and
submit an annual report of the expenditures authorized in
subsection (d) to the Governor, the Attorney General and the
chairperson and minority chairperson of the Environmental
Resources and Energy Committee of the Senate and the chairperson
and minority chairperson of the Environmental Resources and
Energy Committee of the House of Representatives. The report
shall be submitted within 45 days of the end of the first fiscal
year following the effective date of this subsection and within
45 days of the end of each fiscal year thereafter. The
department shall post and maintain each report on the
department's publicly accessible Internet website. The report
shall contain the following:
(1) For fiscal year 2017-2018 through the fiscal year
following the fiscal year in which the principal of the trust
fund exceeds $700,000,000:
(i) A description and accounting of all expenditures
and distributions from the Oil and Gas Lease Fund for the
preceding fiscal year.
(ii) An outline of the objectives and planned
expenditures from the Oil and Gas Lease Fund for the next
fiscal year.
(2) For the fiscal year following the fiscal year in
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which the principal of the trust fund exceeds $700,000,000
and each fiscal year thereafter:
(i) A description and accounting for all
expenditures and distributions by the trust fund for the
preceding fiscal year.
(ii) An outline of the objectives and planned
expenditures from the trust fund for the next fiscal
year.
(j) Audit.--The Auditor General shall perform an audit of
the trust fund each fiscal year. Costs of the audit shall be
paid out of the trust fund.
(k) Public information.--Information in the possession of
the department, the Treasury Department, the Department of
Environmental Protection and the Department of Agriculture
relating to the trust fund shall be considered a public record
under the act of February 14, 2008 (P.L.6, No.3), known as the
Right-to-Know Law.
§ 2505. Funds.
(a) [Priority.--Funds appropriated from the Oil and Gas
Lease Fund to the department under the act of April 9, 1929
(P.L.343, No.176), known as The Fiscal Code, or other
appropriation act shall be distributed prior to allocations
under subsection (b).] (Reserved).
(b) Allocations.--Money in the Oil and Gas Lease Fund shall
be allocated on an annual basis as follows:
(1) The following amounts shall be transferred from the
Oil and Gas Lease Fund to the Marcellus Legacy Fund for
distribution to the Environmental Stewardship Fund:
(i) For 2013, $20,000,000.
(ii) For 2014 [and each year thereafter], 2015, 2016
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and 2017, $35,000,000.
(2) The following amounts shall be transferred from the
Oil and Gas Lease Fund to the Marcellus Legacy Fund for
distribution to the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund:
(i) For 2015, $5,000,000.
(ii) For 2016 [and each year thereafter] and 2017,
$15,000,000.
(3) As provided in section 2502(d) (relating to Public
Natural Resources Trust Fund ).
(4) In the fiscal year following the fiscal year in
which the principal of the trust fund exceeds the amount set
forth in section 2502(d)(2) and each fiscal year thereafter,
all money in the Oil and Gas Lease Fund shall be appropriated
to the department as authorized under the act of December 15,
1955 (P.L.865, No.256), entitled "An act requiring rents and
royalties from oil and gas leases of Commonwealth land to be
placed in a special fund to be used for conservation,
recreation, dams, and flood control; authorizing the
Secretary of Forests and Waters to determine the need for and
location of such projects and to acquire the necessary land."
Section 3. Repeals are as follows:
(1) The General Assembly declares that the repeals under
paragraph (2) are necessary to effectuate the following:
(i) The addition of the definition of "trust fund"
in 58 Pa.C.S. § 2501.
(ii) The amendment of 58 Pa.C.S. § 2502.
(iii) The amendment of 58 Pa.C.S. § 2505.
(2) Sections 1601.1-E, 1602-E and 1603-E of the act of
April 9, 1929 (P.L.343, No.176), known as The Fiscal Code,
are repealed.
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Section 4. This act shall take effect immediately.
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