Tax Natural Gas Drilling to Protect
Our Resources
"…we gladly pay a severance tax in every state where we're active, except New York and Pennsylvania."
—Matthew Sheppard, spokesperson for Chesapeake Energy Corp., quoted in the Elmira Star-Gazette, 3/26/09
Pennsylvania is the 15th leading natural gas production state. All 14 states that top PA levy a severance tax or conservation fee on gas drilling. Nearly all other producing states also tax gas extraction.
Pennsylvania sits atop one of the largest natural gas deposits in the world. The Marcellus shale formation could hold enough recoverable natural gas to fuel the nation’s gas needs for 13 years. New drilling technology means that drillers are just now starting to extract this gas.
The resource is huge. And, as has been learned from gas operations around the country, so too will be the impacts of drilling it: pipelines, drilling pads and wastewater pits scarring our landscapes; air pollution from every stage of production; heavy rigs damaging our roads; billions of gallons of water taken from our streams; and operational errors contaminating our land and water.
What will the cumulative damage be through the decades as natural gas is drilled and piped around the state? What will our great grandchildren be left with when the last gas well is exhausted?
The answers depend largely on what happens now. By dedicating a portion of proposed gas extraction tax revenues to land, water and wildlife conservation and to local governments impacted by gas exploitation, we can offset the damages caused by natural gas operations. Pennsylvania can lay the foundation for a prosperous future.
If, however, we fail to reinvest in our natural resources as this natural gas boom progresses, we will miss an historic opportunity to ensure that our descendants will receive a natural wealth equal to our own. We will miss an historic opportunity to invest in our communities so that they can prosper both during extraction activities and after the gas is gone.
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