The Worm Begins to Turn re Gov. Tom Wolf’s Severance Tax
A mixed editorial by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s ill-dated severance tax plan. The Post-Gazette believes, like most liberal Democrats, that the gas in the ground belongs “to the state” and not to individual, private property landowners. In their minds, a piece of the action (i.e. tax) should be levied on the gas coming out of the ground to transfer that wealth away from the people who own it–landowners–and give it to teachers’ unions instead. It’s always “for the children,” of course. (Utter bunkum.) Anywho, the Post-Gazette, while loving things like severance taxes, has begrudgingly faced the music on Wolf’s plan. They now see the fatal flaws and (consequentially) admit them. Their aim with the editorial is to have Wolf “fix” his broken plan, which isn’t likely to happen. Wolf doesn’t think his plan is broken and his attitude, along with the smug attitude of his lieutenants like Dept. of Environmental Protection Secretary John Quigley, is that the Wolf severance tax plan is superior and needs no fixing. Reality is gradually starting to dawn on the Dems–that they’re not going to get a severance tax this high–and so the blame game has begun. The worm has started to turn…
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Yesterday the federal Environmental Protection Agency, at the request of Congress, released a draft assessment (executive summary below) on the potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing activities on drinking water resources in the United States. The EPA studied other studies, leaving no stone unturned (950 “sources” in all). What did they find? “Hydraulic fracturing activities in the U.S. are carried out in a way that have not led to widespread, systemic impacts on drinking water resources.” That is, fracking doesn’t pollute water supplies. They did point out certain “vulnerabilities” that can arise from fracking: drawing down water supplies in areas where water is in short supply; fracking in a formation that has a water supply in it (which we’ve never heard of happening before); poorly cased and cemented wells (yes, we know about it and have improved it over the years); discharging “inadequately treated” wastewater into public drinking water supplies; and spills on top of the ground. In other words, the study doesn’t tell us a darned thing we don’t already know–and concludes fracking doesn’t pollute water supplies. How much more plain and clear can it get?…
In November 2014 Sunoco Logistics committed to building the $2.5 billion Mariner East 2 pipeline to increase capacity in moving natural gas liquids like ethane, propane and butane from western Pennsylvania to the Marcus Hook refinery in Philadelphia (see