PITTSBURGH — An improving landscape for the natural gas industry will translate into higher returns for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s impact fee collections in 2026, according to a new report.
The Independent Fiscal Office predicted Pennsylvania’s impact fees collection will total $239.9 million for calendar year 2025. That will be the highest level since $278.9 million in 2022. It’s up 46% from last year.
The impact fee, put in place during the Corbett administration, is what the state’s natural gas industry pays on production from unconventional wells in the Marcellus and Utica shales either drilled or operating within Pennsylvania in a year. Each well, and operator, pays depending on a scale that takes into account when a natural gas well became operational, the type of well, and the price of natural gas. It’s weighted to pay the most annually in the first years of a well’s operation, when it is most productive.
This year’s increase is due to a higher fee schedule due to higher natural gas prices as well as a higher number of wells drilled in Pennsylvania during 2025.
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