This editorial first appeared in the Citizens Voice on December 9, 2021--

The gas industry in Pennsylvania has succeeded the coal and railroad industries in making the state Legislature a nearly wholly owned subsidiary, but you’d never know it by hearing one of the industry’s top executives assess the industry’s treatment by the state government.

Tuesday, CNX Resources Corp. CEO Nicholas J. DeIuliis told his industry colleagues at a state convention that the industry has “paid more than our fair share” through the state’s “local impact fee” on new drilling.  [Read more here]

That fee, however, already represents how low the industry-captive Legislature could go while still maintaining some shred of credibility.

It is unique to Pennsylvania, an industry-friendly substitute for the standard “severance” tax that every other gas-drilling state imposes on natural gas production.

Pennsylvania is the second-leading gas-producing state, behind Texas. According to the state Public Utility Commission, which regulates the fee, it has produced just over $2 billion since 2012.

Texas, in fiscal 2020 alone, realized $3.45 billion from its oil and gas severance tax, of which $1.57 billion was from gas.

DeIuliis also complained that big multinational corporations (not those!) exploit state and federal tax subsidies to build renewable energy projects.

Of course, Pennsylvania lawmakers’ refusal to impose a fair severance tax on the gas industry is a massive subsidy in its own right.

So is their refusal to force drillers to stop deducting their own production costs from lease payments to landowners.

But the industry’s subservient lawmakers haven’t left it at that.

They short-staffed the Department of Environmental Protection for years, resisted state and federal efforts to reduce methane leakage from gas operations, and overrode local zoning protocols to the industry’s requirements.

Regarding subsidized multinational corporations, lawmakers provided an unprecedented $1.7 billion in tax credits for Shell — the world’s fourth-largest company — to build a gas-based petrochemical refinery in Beaver County to produce plastics, and followed that with $880 million in tax subsidies for other gas-based chemical projects.

The industry is here because the gas is here. Its tax or fee liability simply is part of the cost of doing business.

The notion that the industry is put-upon by the state is farcical.

NewsClips:

-- Citizens Voice Editorial: Gas Industry Boss Protests Too Much

-- TribLive: CNX Drilling Calls Wind, Solar Energy “Make-Believe”; Proposes Revamp Of Act 13 Impact Fees To Allow More Natural Gas Production While Raising More Money

-- PG - Anya Litvak: 2 Pittsburgh CEOs Make Very Different Pitches For Why The World Needs More Natural Gas

-- LancasterOnline: Lancaster County Heating Fuels Increase By Double Digits [Driven By Increases In Natural Gas]

-- Delaware Currents: Speakers Demand Delaware River Basin Commission Enact Total Ban On Shale Gas Fracking Wastewater

-- PG - Laura Legere: DEP Releases Final Rule To Cut Methane Leaks From Existing Oil & Gas Well Sites

-- BCTV.org: Pennsylvanians Make Their Voices Heard At EPA Oil & Gas Methane Rule Hearing

-- Environmental Health Project Personal Narrative: Rose Friend's Home In Washington County Surrounded By Natural Gas Drill Pads, Compressor Stations

-- Marcellus Shale Coalition: Poor Energy Policy Choices Burden American Consumers

-- Lock Haven Express Guest Essay: Killing Fracking Kills Our Communities - Doug McClinko, Bradford County Commissioner

Related Articles:

-- Now On Demand: Videos From 2021 Shale Gas & Public Health Conference; Including Preliminary Results Of A Penn State Study On Health Risks From Road Spreading Conventional Drilling Wastewater

-- Physicians For Social Responsibility-PA Host Dec. 10 Virtual Conference On Health Hazards Of Oil & Gas Industry In Pennsylvania

-- DCED PA Grade Crude [Oil] Development Advisory Council Meets Dec. 16 On Road Spreading Of Conventional Drilling Wastewater, Other Issues

-- Penn State: Switch From Coal To Natural Gas Reducing Sulfur Dioxide Emissions, Can Improve Water Quality In Some Streams

-- FracTracker Alliance, Halt The Harm Network To Honor 4 With Sentinel Awards At Dec. 9 Program

[Posted: December 10, 2021]

12/13/2021