Energy Policy

A severance tax must be considered in light of the state’s total tax structure. Pennsylvania taxes the natural gas industry in many ways that don’t exist in other drilling states. For example, there is no corporate income tax or personal income tax in Texas or Wyoming, and the corporate income tax in West Virginia is 6.5%, compared to Pennsylvania’s 9.99% rate.

John Oelbracht has managed the Westwood Generation power plant in Schuylkill County for 10 years. It’s more than a job to him—it’s an undertaking to clean up the environment while producing power for Pennsylvania homes. “We’re on something of a mission here,” Oelbracht says. But if the EPA has its way, he could soon be out of a job.

Given the fiscal challenges facing the state, many advocacy groups are calling for new taxes on natural gas. However, lawmakers should be aware that a severance tax will make Pennsylvania less attractive for gas drillers. Tax increases will not solve the long-term fiscal problems facing our state, with budgetary drivers like pension costs and welfare growing faster than our economy. Finally, this tax increase will victimize Pennsylvania landowners who will see their royalty checks shrink and sma

In the movie Promised Land, Matt Damon plays a smooth talking land man who is sent to rural Pennsylvania to secure the rights to drill for natural gas on locals' land. We talked to real life Pennsylvania land man Mike Knapp to find out how his experience compares with the portrayal in the movie and how he feels about the film's negative take on natural gas drilling.

Companies should pay for the cost of government they use. Many advocates of a new tax simply want more money for Harrisburg politicians to dole out.

Much attention has been paid to the efforts of gas companies to influence the political debate through campaign contributions and lobbying efforts. But anti-drilling activists—while claiming gas companies use their vast financial resources to weaken regulatory structures and silence poorly funded environmental groups—influence politicians through their own lobbying efforts and by spreading myths about drilling. Among the myths alleged about "Big Gas" is that drillers are floc

Jim VanBlarcom, a busy Bradford County dairy farmer, set a work day aside to come to Harrisburg and tell his story to Gov. Tom Corbett's Marcellus Shale panel. Royalty money from leasing farmland helped him double his dairy herd size, and he's glad the industry's here.

Pennsylvania must undergo a rapid transformation to reverse the poor policy decisions that have eroded economic freedoms and brought the state to its present condition. To provide a roadmap for success in this critical endeavor, the Commonwealth Foundation has compiled a list of 80 policy recommendations for Gov. Corbett and state legislators to help lead a Pennsylvania comeback. Each of these recommendations links to Commonwealth Foundation research with more information on each issue.

A lot can be spun from the results of the Nov. 2 elections, but one fact is uncontrovertible: Pennsylvanians are sick of centrally planned, highly regulated, gimmick-driven economic policy. It hasn't worked, and now they want results.

Just this past Tuesday, Pennsylvania voters rejected Gov. Rendell's overspending ways. With Governor-elect Corbett and the new legislature facing a multi-billion dollar deficit, now is not the time to allow a lame-duck PennVEST Board waste another $12 million on a pipeline to nowhere.