Pennsylvania’s impact fee on natural gas wells yielded its highest payout to date this year, the Public Utility Commission said Thursday.

The annual fee levied on wells tapping the state’s gas-rich Marcellus and Utica shales raised $243 million for 2018, plus $8.9 million in back fees from companies that had withheld payments for several years while courts decided which low-producing “stripper” wells were exempt from the law.

Read more from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette here.