Snyder, Fischer debate natural gas, coal industries
Both candidates running to fill the vacant 50th District seat in the state House of Representatives support Marcellus shale natural gas exploration and coal mining.
Pam Snyder, the Democratic chairwoman of the Greene County Commissioners, and Republican candidate Mark W. Fischer of Waynesburg discussed the gas and coal industries in a recent meeting with the HeraldStandard.com editorial board.
The district encompasses Greene County and parts of Fayette and Washington counties, but residents there have not had representation in the House since former Democratic Rep. Bill DeWeese was sentenced to prison for using state resources for his election campaigns in April following his conviction in March.
The thriving gas and coal industries create the potential for the state to be the country’s energy leader, Snyder said.
“We have the opportunity in Pennsylvania to be the epicenter,” Snyder said.
The gas industry has created jobs and benefited property owners, but has created some challenges too, she said.
Taxes from coal mining operations account for 40 percent of the county’s budget, Snyder said.
She compared the state’s energy potential to California’s Silicon Valley dominance of the technology industry.
“I think Pennsylvania is sitting in a prime spot to be that energy leader,” Snyder said.
For many years, the country has wanted to reduce its dependency on foreign oil and natural gas should be part of the answer, she said.
Fischer, a Waynesburg area native who returned to Greene County in 2009 after a career in public safety in Florida, said the state has to find ways to regulate and work with the gas industry.
The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) does the best job it can to enforce gas development regulations, he said.
Revenue from the impact fees imposed on drillers were originally intended to pay for damages, but Fischer said the law allows counties and municipalities to spend the money on various purposes.
Assessing a fee is acceptable if it doesn’t result in consumer price increases and the revenue should be used to pay for regulation and enforcement of gas laws, he said.
Current natural gas prices are among the lowest in history and experts are needed to help with the unknown, he said.
Snyder said the DEP does a good job of enforcing gas development regulations, but accidents occasionally happen.
She said she hopes a proposed gas processing, or cracker, plant is built in Beaver because it would benefit the region.
“The jury is still out” on the impact fee because the county hasn’t received its share of the revenue yet, but any money that comes to the county is welcome, Snyder said.
In Greene County, the impact fee revenue will be used to offset cuts in human service funding and she said she would like to use some of the money set up an infrastructure development grant program for municipalities.
Turning to coal, Fischer said federal environmental regulations are threatening to put coal-burning power plants out of business, but coal can be cleanly burned and the state must resist federal intrusion.
The loss of public revenue from the coal industry would have a crippling effect on the economy, he said.
“Washington wants to eliminate coal. I’m 100 percent behind coal,” Fischer said.
Snyder said Greene County is the largest producer of coal that is exported to China and exporting must continue.
Clean coal technology is needed, but the country needs a comprehensive energy plan that includes coal, gas, wind and other sources, she said.
Snyder is in the first year of her third consecutive four-year term as a commissioner.
Before she won her first election, she worked as the late U.S. Rep. Frank R. Mascara’s senior aide and deputy district director.
In August, Snyder was named the Outstanding County Commissioner of the Year by the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania. She is first vice president of the association and would likely become president next year.
She is the secretary/treasurer of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission.
Snyder and her husband, Jack Snyder, live in Jefferson and have two grown daughters. She also is a Eucharistic minister and lector at St. Marcellus Catholic Church in Clarksville.
Fischer and his wife, Tammy Fischer, have a daughter. He is a member of Waynesburg Borough Council.
He works locally as a business manager for Booz Allen Hamilton of Washington, D.C., which does consulting work for the government and various industries. Previously, he was the assistant program operations director for the Virtual Medical Campus/Homeland Security Programs for West Virginia University, where he prepared training programs for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Homeland Security Department.
Fischer was a volunteer fireman in Waynesburg and a Pennsylvania Army National Guardsman before he moved to Florida, where he would work as a deputy fire chief, fire marshal and emergency manger in Cocoa Beach. He has a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Central Florida.