Severance

As production continues to soar in Pennsylvania and it remains the only state in the country without a tax on oil and gas extraction, lawmakers are once again considering a severance tax that could find traction sooner rather than later.

A group of Republicans in the Ohio House of Representatives have once again thrust the state’s oil and gas severance tax onto center stage by proposing a modest increase in the rate operators currently pay for production in the Utica Shale.

In what’s being viewed as a symbolic move with little traction, a Democratic lawmaker in Pennsylvania has introduced a bill calling for an “open-ended” ban on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the state until it can be fully studied.

Elected officials in West Virginia are considering establishing an oil and gas trust fund similar to one enacted in other states, in hopes of providing future generations in the state with a source of revenue.

A nonpartisan policy research group in Pennsylvania is doubling down on its assertion that the state would be better served by a severance tax on oil and gas, adding that Pennsylvania is getting “shortchanged” compared other states like Texas and West Virginia, which both have severance taxes.

A nonpartisan policy research group in Pennsylvania is doubling down on its assertion that the state would be better served by a severance tax on oil and gas, adding that Pennsylvania is getting “shortchanged” by the impact fee under Act 13, the state’s omnibus Marcellus Shale law.

U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz of Jenkintown, PA, who has declared her candidacy for the gubernatorial race in 2014, said she would enact a 5% severance tax on natural gas if elected, adding that over a decade such a tax could generate $13.2 billion in revenue for the state.

An interim committee in the Wyoming legislature is considering drafting a bill that would put a severance tax on producers for the amounts of produced natural gas they flare.

Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary Michael Krancer said late last month he is “not convinced” that wastewater injection wells are an issue in the state, and said he disagreed with a state legislator’s plan to enact a two-year moratorium.