Politicos may be upbeat about Pennsylvania's new budget, but a detailed look reveals devastating cuts to key environmental agencies and programs:

Department of Conservation and Natural Resources funding is cut by 18.5 percent.

The State Parks budget will be reduced by 15.6 percent. Permanent closure of some state parks now appears to inevitable. Goodbye Ralph Stover? Noxamixon? Tyler Park? Delaware Canal ?

Perhaps most shocking is the $60 million loss to the Oil & Gas Fund, which was established in 1955 to fund land acquisition and other conservation priorities. The Legislature plans to replenish the fund by leasing more state forest land for gas drilling. All of which leads to more roads, forest fragmentation, noise, air and water pollution and groundwater contamination on our precious state forests.

These cuts seem huge and devastating, but they pale in comparison to the $58 million cut in Department of Environmental Protection's (DEP) funding. This reduction is so massive that the full implications are not yet clear, but could mean layoffs for more than 300 DEP staff. With that many people gone who would monitor all the new oil and gas drilling across the state? The combination of the huge budget cuts and massive expansion of oil and gas wells requiring permitting and inspections and enforcement appears to set the stage for the de facto deregulation of oil and gas drilling.

None of this was necessary.

Pennsylvania is the only gas-producing state without a severance tax on natural gas production. The tax is widely supported by environmental organizations, many legislators, local municipalities and sportsmen's groups. Even Gov. Rendell supported the tax until he flip-flopped on this in late August. The severance tax was expected to raise over $100 million for this budget year, far exceeding the $60 million to be looted from the Oil & Gas Fund.

Who do we have to thank for this? Our state senators who voted "yes" for this plunder of our natural resources and who refused to allow a severance tax on natural gas extraction. Keep this in mind the next time you wonder why our state parks are falling down and Pennsylvania's environment keeps degrading.

David Meiser, Bucks County Sierra Club