Gov. Tom Corbett discusses his plan for taxing Marcellus Shale drillers Monday during a tour of the Carpenters Training Center in Pittsburgh.

PITTSBURGH — Unveiling a much-anticipated plan to regulate and harness Pennsylvania's booming natural gas industry, Gov. Tom Corbett called Monday for even-handed laws that recognize the competition beyond the state's borders for an industry that he said is boosting the economy and lowering energy bills.

Corbett's plan would allow counties to impose fees of up to $160,000 per well over 10 years to help pay for the cost to regulate the drilling and fix the damage it causes to the environment. It also would toughen laws that protect the state's water sources and help the industry find new outlets for its product, such as converting school bus fleets or mass transit systems to natural gas power.

“Affordable, reliable energy allows companies to grow, but how do we get there? We have to make sure that we do this right, from the very beginning,” Corbett told a crowd at a unionized carpenters training hall in Pittsburgh. “If we're looking at this industry, it's a little bit beyond a newborn, it's not even crawling yet though. ... We have to get there by smart, sound, even-handed, level playing-field regulation and legislation.”

Corbett, a first-term Republican who is viewed as an industry ally, did not go as far in his proposal as have plans from many urban and suburban lawmakers for extracting tax revenue from the Marcellus Shale producers or imposing tougher environmental standards on drilling to protect waterways, reservoirs, wetlands and private water wells.

Although many aspects of his plan are vague, it will form a crucial part of the debate this fall as lawmakers try to resolve a nearly three-year-old debate over how to modernize state drilling laws, force the industry to pay its fair share and make Pennsylvania a more attractive state in which to do business.

But well over a dozen different plans are floating around the Republican-controlled Legislature to impose a tax or fee on the industry, making it possible that Corbett's proposal could undergo significant changes.

Corbett took a campaign pledge not to increase taxes or fees, and opposes the kind of severance tax imposed by many other natural gas producing states because he says he fears it would drive the industry away while Pennsylvania is trying to recover from the recession. But he views an impact fee as being fundamentally different than a severance tax, and he defends his proposal as being in line with his campaign pledge.

Under his plan, counties would have the latitude to impose an impact fee of up to $40,000 per well in a well's first year. The maximum fee amount would decline to $30,000 in the second year, $20,000 in the third year and $10,000 in the fourth through tenth years of production. After that, it would disappear.

The Corbett administration estimates that the plan would generate up to $120 million in the first year and up to $195 million by the sixth year.

Top Senate Republicans were largely noncommittal on Corbett's plan. But Luzerne County Sen. John Yudichak, the ranking Democrat on the Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, said the county-based fee that Corbett chose as a vehicle to address for environmental impact and economic development is a mistake.

“It doesn't make good economic policy and it certainly doesn't make good environmental policy,” Yudichak said.

The money primarily would go toward the costs of regulating drilling and absorbing population growth stemming from the influx of drilling crews, heavy machinery and truck traffic. It would not help the state's general fund, public schools or statewide environmental improvement programs.

Most of the impact fee money, 75 percent, would be split up by counties and municipalities that are home to the drilling for a wide range of uses, such as improvements to roads and bridges and water and sewer systems, social services, affordable housing projects and emergency response.

The rest, 25 percent, would go to the state for environmental protection, road and bridge improvements, health studies, emergency response and pipeline safety.

Here are key details of Gov. Tom Corbett’s plan to regulate and encourage the economic potential of Pennsylvania’s natural gas industry:<b>IMPACT FEE</b>• Allows counties to impose an impact fee for up to 10 years on each shale well, starting at a maximum of $40,000 per well in the first year. The maximum amount declines over time to $10,000 in the tenth and final year.• Sends 75 percent of fee revenue to drilling counties and communities for such projects as road and bridge repair, social services, affordable housing projects, emergency response, and public water projects.• Sends 25 percent of fee revenue to state agencies for gas pipeline inspection, road and bridge repair, health studies, emergency response and well-drilling inspection.• Collects up to an estimated $120 million in the first year and up to an estimated $195 million in the sixth year.<b>ENVIRONMENTAL STANDARDS</b>• Requires operators to increase insurance on each well drilled to $10,000 from $2,000, or on an operator’s aggregate to $250,000 from $25,000.• Increases spacing between drilling and water bodies to 300 feet from 100 feet.• Increases spacing between drilling and private residential water wells to 500 feet from 200 feet.• Increases spacing between drilling and public drinking water system to 1,000 feet from 200 feet.• Expands an operator’s “presumed liability” for polluting water to 2,500 feet around a well from 1,000 feet, and to 12 months after drilling completion from 6 months.<b>PENALTIES</b>• Doubles penalties for civil violations to $50,000 from $25,000.• Doubles daily penalties for noncompliance to $2,000 from $1,000.<b>USAGE</b>• Develops “green corridors” with natural-gas vehicle fueling stations at least every 50 miles along key highways.• Helps schools and mass transit agencies to convert bus fleets to natural gas fuel.