Taxation

Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA Gov. Wolf Floats Budget with Severance Tax for 7th Year in Row
January 29, 2021January 29, 2021

Invoking the words “coronavirus” and “COVID-19” like a magical talisman, Pennsylvania’s far-left, bumbling governor, Tom Wolf, has for the seventh year in a row issued a budget proposal that won’t pass because it includes a Marcellus-killing severance tax on top of the existing severance tax (called an impact “fee”). Every year the urgent/critical reason changes for why Wolf needs to get his grubby hands on hundreds of millions of dollars. Just insert whatever is currently in the news into the blank and it’s the same tired, old appeal. This year the excuse is the coronavirus and restoring PA’s failing economy. Wolf is Johnny One-Note when it comes to proposing a severance tax every year.
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Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA Gov. Wolf’s $2.3B RGGI Carbon Tax Scheme Gets 13K Comments
January 25, 2021January 25, 2021

The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) received some 13,000 public comments on its horrible plan to force PA residents to pay $2.36 billion in new energy taxes (a carbon tax) for electricity produced by coal and natural gas power plants–a scheme called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). The plan would greatly reduce the number of gas-fired power plants operating in the state and create energy insecurity for the entire PJM portion of the national electricity grid.
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

IFO Projects 2020 PA Impact Fee Revenue Fell by $55.9M (28%)
January 6, 2021January 6, 2021

In early 2020 Pennsylvania raised $198.2 million from its version of a severance tax, called an impact fee, based on drilling activity from 2019, which was down from the previous year (see IFO Projects 2019 PA Impact Fee Revenue Fell by $53.6M (21%)). The state’s Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) is out with projections for how much revenue will be raised this year (based on drilling in 2020). Given the pandemic and a crash in natural gas prices early in the year, you won’t be surprised to learn the impact fee will drop another $55.5 million, to $144.85 million. That’s a drop in the impact fee of 42% over the past two years. Ouch.
Read More “IFO Projects 2020 PA Impact Fee Revenue Fell by $55.9M (28%)”
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

IFO Says PA Impact Fee Revenue Will Fall to “Record Low” for 2020
December 18, 2020December 18, 2020

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 on Wednesday (for December). The update contains a rather ominous paragraph projecting impact fee revenues for 2020 will drop by $53 million–to the lowest level of revenue generated since PA enacted an impact fee.
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Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

Anti-Fossil Fuelers Pack Virtual Hearings to Support PA Carbon Tax
December 16, 2020December 16, 2020

Big Green groups conducted a highly coordinated effort to pack Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board (EQB) virtual hearings on Gov. Tom Wolf’s $2.36 billion carbon tax scheme. Big Green claims 95% of those blabbering on during the hearings supported the tax, which would kill the gas-fired power generation industry in the state. There’s still time for shale supporters to register their objection to Wolf’s carbon tax insanity.
Read More “Anti-Fossil Fuelers Pack Virtual Hearings to Support PA Carbon Tax”
Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA Labor Unions Continue to Fight Gov. Wolf’s RGGI Carbon Tax Plan
December 10, 2020December 10, 2020

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and his Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) continue to push a plan that will raise Pennsylvania residents’ electric rates by 50% or more, a carbon tax scheme called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). The DEP is in the midst of conducting virtual public hearings until Dec. 14. PA’s trade labor unions, dead set against RGGI, are participating to make sure Wolf knows of their opposition.
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Antero Resources | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Statewide WV | Taxation | West Virginia

Antero Resources Wins Important WV Tax Case Affecting All Drillers
November 20, 2020November 20, 2020

Antero Resources, one of the largest drillers in the Marcellus/Utica, working primarily in West Virginia, has just won a major sales tax case in the WV Supreme Court that affects the entire oil and gas industry, including M-U drillers.
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Industrywide Issues | Taxation

“Green LNG” – The Latest Carbon Tax Scam
October 29, 2020October 29, 2020

There is another new scam being perpetrated on the liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector. It’s called “green LNG.” Supposedly pimple-faced millennial investors are demanding the companies they invest in (with some $110 trillion worth of money) clean up their carbon dioxide emissions or the spoiled kids will refuse to invest. Some LNG companies are going to extraordinary lengths to prove their green worthiness to these idiots.
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Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA Gov Wolf Vetoes Bill Giving Citizens Say in Carbon Tax Scheme
September 28, 2020September 28, 2020

Last week the extremely unpopular Pennsylvania Governor, Tom Wolf, vetoed a bill that would have given all citizens in the Keystone State, via their elected representatives in the state legislature, a say in whether or not the state should join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). RGGI is a huge new $2.4 billion tax on coal and gas-fired power plants that will drive up the cost of electricity dramatically across the state.
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Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Taxation

EQB Votes to Approve Gov. Wolf’s $2.4B Carbon Tax on PA Residents
September 16, 2020September 16, 2020

As we told you on Monday, the Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board (EQB), a powerful committee operating under the larger umbrella of the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), held a hearing and cast a vote yesterday on whether or not PA should join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a tax on carbon for power generators (see Exclusive: PA EQB Board Member Speaks Out Against RGGI Carbon Tax). As we predicted on Monday, EQB, which is packed with political appointees by PA Gov. Tom Wolf, voted in favor of their boss’s plan. It would have been career suicide to vote against it.
Read More “EQB Votes to Approve Gov. Wolf’s $2.4B Carbon Tax on PA Residents”
Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA Senate Passes Bill Giving Legislators Say in RGGI Carbon Tax
September 10, 2020September 10, 2020

Yesterday the full Pennsylvania Senate passed House Bill (HB) 2025, a bill already passed by the House previously. The bill now goes to Democrat leftist Gov. Tom Wolf, who says he will veto it. The bill restores democracy to the Commonwealth by giving the legislature–the very people elected to be the voice of PA citizens–a role in deciding whether or not PA should join the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI)–which is nothing more than an obscenely high tax on carbon meant to kill coal and natural gas-fired power plants in the state–a major customer of Marcellus gas.
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Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA Senate Advances Bills to Stop Wolf RGGI Carbon Tax
September 9, 2020September 10, 2020

The Republican-controlled Pennsylvania legislature continues its quest to stop Gov. Tom Wolf from illegally assuming powers he does not have to force the state into a carbon tax scheme called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Last Thursday the state Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee voted to report out two bills for a full Senate vote that will block Wolf’s Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) from joining RGGI without legislative approval.
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Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

SWPA Union Members Rally Against Gov. Wolf’s RGGI Carbon Tax
August 27, 2020August 27, 2020

We have chronicled the break between trade unions and Pennsylvania. Gov. Tom Wolf over Wolf’s stubborn insistence on forcing the state to join a carbon tax scheme called RGGI–the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (see our union stories here). Union members know that RGGI will kill the Marcellus industry in the state and lead to massive job losses–all in the name of fixing so-called climate change. Yesterday union members in southwestern PA rallied at a power plant to (once again) voice their strong opposition to Wolf’s highly unpopular plan.
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Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Industrywide Issues | NEXUS Pipeline | Ohio | Pipelines | Stark County | Taxation

NEXUS, Rover Pipes Lose Court Case to Lower Ohio Tax Bill
August 24, 2020August 24, 2020

Last December both Rover Pipeline and NEXUS Pipeline, two large Utica-gas pipelines traversing Ohio, appealed their property tax valuations to the Ohio Dept. of Taxation, looking to trim their tax bills in Stark County by up to 50% (see NEXUS and Rover Pipes Ask Stark County, OH for BIG Tax Cut). In July, Ohio’s Tax Commissioner denied the two pipelines’ request. Rover and NEXUS together are projected to be on the hook for $20 million in taxes in Stark County–just for last year!
Read More “NEXUS, Rover Pipes Lose Court Case to Lower Ohio Tax Bill”
Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA | Taxation

SWPA Labor Unions Say Wolf’s $2.4B Carbon Tax Will Hurt PA Economy
August 10, 2020August 10, 2020

Two different trade unions are asking some great questions about Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s plan to force the state to join the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a carbon tax on coal and gas-fired electric generating plants. For example, how would a $2.36 BILLION carbon tax reduce carbon dixoide emissions any more than is already happening by the use of natural gas? PA already reduced CO2 emissions by 32% over the same time period RGGI (a coalition of liberal northeastern states) began–far more of a reduction than RGGI states have experienced!–without belonging to the RGGI tax plan.
Read More “SWPA Labor Unions Say Wolf’s $2.4B Carbon Tax Will Hurt PA Economy”
Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Taxation

PA Senate Democrats Introduce New Carbon Tax Bill
August 4, 2020August 4, 2020

What is it with Democrats and the urge to tax everything–even things that breathe? They have a particular fascination with taxing carbon dioxide–the building block of life and the substance every living thing breathes out with every breath. The latest Democrat who wants to tax CO2 is Pennsylvania Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa, Jr. (from Pittsburgh) who introduced Senate Bill (SB) 15. Costa falsely calls it a “cap and invest” plan. In reality and normal plain English, it’s a tax plan–taxing natural gas-fired power plants.
Read More “PA Senate Democrats Introduce New Carbon Tax Bill”