Severance

More than half of all Pennsylvania certified public accountants (CPA) surveyed in a recent poll said they support Democratic Gov.-elect Tom Wolf’s plan to implement a 5% severance tax on oil and natural gas production in the state, identifying it as a leading option to close the state’s nearly $2 billion budget deficit.

Polls show Pennsylvania’s Republican Gov.Tom Corbett narrowing the double-digit lead that Democratic challenger Tom Wolf has enjoyed for much of the campaign. The election has high stakes for the oil and gas industry as Wolf has pushed a severance tax and made energy reform a mainstay of his campaign.

Polls show Pennsylvania’s Republican Gov.Tom Corbett narrowing the double-digit lead that Democratic challenger Tom Wolf has enjoyed for much of the campaign. The election has high stakes for the oil and gas industry as Wolf has pushed a severance tax and made energy reform a mainstay of his campaign.

Pennsylvania’s top oil and gas trade groups have sent a letter to Republican and Democratic leaders in both chambers of the state legislature, urging against the passage of a new severance tax on the industry.

With less than two weeks left to find revenue to fill Pennsylvania’s projected $1.5 billion budget deficit, a severance tax on natural gas production is once again being discussed in earnest as lawmakers search for ways to avoid deeper spending cuts.

York County, PA, businessman Tom Wolf, who took a seat at the front of the state’s Democratic primary for governor in January and never looked back, earned his party’s nomination on Tuesday to challenge Republican incumbent Tom Corbett in November.

The Ohio House of Representatives on Wednesday voted 55-35 in favor of a bill that would levy a 2.5% severance tax on oil and natural gas produced from horizontal wells, most of which target the Marcellus and Utica shales.

An analysis conducted by Ernst & Young LLP (EY) on behalf of a trade group representing top executives from Ohio’s leading businesses has concluded that a proposed severance tax increase would leave its effective rate the lowest among the nation’s leading oil and gas producing states.

Pennsylvania's impact fee on unconventional natural gas wells is lower than the severance tax rate levied by 10 states for natural gas extraction, according to a report released Thursday by the state's Independent Fiscal Office (IFO).