PA IFO Predicts 2022 Act 13 Impact Tax to Increase by $74M
Pennsylvania’s Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) provides revenue projections for use in the state budget process along with impartial and timely analysis of fiscal, economic, and budgetary issues to assist PA residents and the General Assembly in their evaluation of policy decisions. The IFO published its Monthly Economic Update yesterday (for October). The update contains good news for PA residents, all of whom benefit from the state’s Act 13 impact “fee” (i.e. tax) on Marcellus drilling. The IFO says the impact fee in 2022 (assessed on drilled and active wells as of 2021) will haul in an extra $74 million (to nearly a quarter of a billion dollars) thanks to the higher average price of the NYMEX futures index.
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The American Exploration & Production Council (AXPC), which represents major oil and gas companies across the country, including many of the top producers in the Marcellus/Utica, is sounding the alarm that Joe Biden’s massive multi-trillion dollar reconciliation bill will destroy 90,000 jobs in the O&G industry and trim $9 billion out of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The Democrat Party aims to destroy fossil fuels and the $3.5 trillion (or $1 trillion or whatever it ends up being) so-called reconciliation bill is designed to do just that.
The leftist Democrats in Congress (and The White House) are not content to use a single barrel shotgun in its attempt to murder natural gas use in the U.S. They’ve brought out the double barrel shotgun. The federal government is proposing, under the Biden EPA, sweeping new methane emission regulations. The regulations are far worse than anything even in the Obamadroid era. That’s barrel number one. At the same time, the Dems intend to slap an insanely high new tax on methane in their so-called budget reconciliation bill. That’s the second barrel.
In April, on the last day of the West Virginia legislative session for 2021, the West Virginia Senate unanimously passed House Bill (HB) 2581 which changes how the State Tax Department values producing oil and gas wells for property tax purposes (see 
In March 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was beginning to enter the public consciousness, some 500 people from labor unions and industry met in Pittsburgh to launch an organization called Pittsburgh Works Together (PWT), dedicated to fighting back against those who want to end southwest PA industries including steel, natural gas, and petrochemicals (see 
The CO2 Coalition, a nonprofit established in 2015 for the purpose of educating thought leaders, policymakers, and the general public about the important contribution made by carbon dioxide to our lives and the economy, has just published a detailed analysis of Pennsylvania’s plan to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI (full copy below). In the report, more than 70 top scientists conclude that PA Gov. Tom Wolf’s justifications for the RGGI carbon tax “are invalid and its claims of environmental and economic benefits are fiction.”
What would you call it if your boss, the guy who hired you and keeps you employed, wants you to vote in favor of something he supports–and your job depends on that vote? Aside from the obvious gross corruption, we’d call it a clear case of conflict of interest. This is exactly what happened last week when the heads of various government agencies appointed by Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf got together as members of the Environmental Quality Board (EQB) and voted to advance an economy-killing, jobs-killing, $2.6 billion new carbon tax on PA residents euphemistically called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (see 
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf pulled a fast one. He pressured the PA Environmental Quality Board (EQB), a powerful committee operating under the larger umbrella of the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), to hold a hearing and cast a vote yesterday (in the dead of summer with everyone out of town) on whether or not PA should join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), an obscene tax on carbon for power generators including natgas power plants. The EQB, packed with people who depend on Wolf for their jobs (he’s their boss), voted in favor of advancing the $2.6 billion RGGI carbon tax proposal by 15-4. No surprise there. It was an inside job.
“A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.” (See below for the full quote.) Yesterday Pennsylvania Democrats unveiled their latest “generous gifts” they’re promising to bestow on Pennsylvanians from the public treasury if Gov. Wolf gets his way and imposes a Marcellus-killing carbon tax on electric power generation. The Dems figure they can raise about $300 million a year via a carbon tax and they have a wish list bigger than your wildest dreams for where they’ll spend it. One tiny problem for the Dems…
Pennsylvania’s Democrats are having trouble selling the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a carbon tax aimed at shutting down PA’s coal and natural gas-fired power plants, and by extension shutting down many shale-related jobs in the state. The Dems can’t paper over the fact that RGGI will spell massive layoffs. So what do they propose? Government handouts to those who get laid off, paying them literally pennies on the dollar in government welfare checks in return for “saving the planet” by shuttering coal and gas-fired plants (and putting people out of work). That’s the brilliant solution proposed in a bill offered up by southeast PA state Senator Carolyn Comitta (D-Chester County).