Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Taxation
PA Gov. Wolf’s Stacked EQB Approves RGGI Carbon Tax by 15-4 Vote
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.
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“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).
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 
It’s nice to see Pennsylvania’s Republican legislators playing hardball with the out-of-control governor of Pennsylvania, Tom Wolf. Yesterday PA Senate Republicans wrote a letter to Gov. Wolf to advise him they will reject all future nominees to the state Public Utility Commission (PUC) until he withdraws his executive order joining the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a carbon tax scheme aimed at shutting down coal and natural gas-fired power plants in the state.
For those of us unfortunate enough to live in New York State, we’re already screwed with a corrupt governor large and still in charge (even though his actions led to thousands of COVID deaths in nursing homes and even though he’s a sexual predator). The screwing (pun intended) continues. There are bills in both the NY Assembly and Senate that aim to increase the tax on gasoline in the state by $0.55 per gallon! In addition, the bills would increase the tax on natural gas that end users pay–those who use it to heat and cook with, residences and businesses–by an extra 26%!! Translation: Move out of NY while you still can sell your house. And don’t forget to turn the lights off when you leave.
The deed is done. On Saturday, the last day of the legislative session in 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. As we told you last Thursday, the Senate version modified the bill from its original intent of allowing landowners to claim big deductions (see 
Last MDN told you that the West Virginia House of Delegates had passed House Bill (HB) 2581, which changes how the State Tax Department values producing oil and gas wells for property tax purposes (see 
In February West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice announced a plan to eliminate the state’s personal income tax. In order to replace the $2.1 billion received annually from the personal income tax, Justice would raise other taxes, including a tiered system that raises the state’s oil and gas severance tax…potentially by a lot (see 
Some days it’s tough. You try to keep your head held high, but then you read of someone you (used to) highly respect, someone like former Secretary of the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection, Mike Krancer, who now supports Pennsylvania being forced to join the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which is nothing more than an obscene carbon tax that would force gas-fired power plants out of existence. Krancer bases his support on the flimsiest of excuses: That the tax revenues raised by RGGI (coming out of the pockets of ALL Pennsylvanians) will help plug a few more of the hundreds of thousands of old/abandoned conventional oil and gas wells throughout the state. Really Mike?
Shale and conventional oil and gas drillers in West Virginia listen up: If you file for a modification to a previously filed permit request, it’s going to cost you $2,500. Currently, it costs nothing. Two weeks ago we told you about Senate Bill (SB) 404 (see 
In February West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice announced a plan to eliminate the state’s personal income tax. In order to replace the $2.1 billion received annually from the personal income tax, Justice would raise other taxes, including a tiered system that potentially raises the state’s oil and gas severance tax…potentially by a lot (see