Natural Gas Impact Fee Revenue Shrinking, While Repubs refuse to pass extraction tax

[JPZenger]

http://citizensvoice.com/news/impact-fee-revenue-dropping-1.1938754

Excerpt:

"The Independent Fiscal Office projects that impact fee revenue collected during 2015 could be anywhere from $15 million to nearly $34 million less than the $223 million collected in 2014. Exactly how much of a decline would depend on several scenarios outlined by the agency.

...Marcellus drillers pay no severance tax on the gas they produce in Pennsylvania. Instead, under a 2012 law, they pay an annual fee based on the number of unconventional wellheads drilled and the wholesale prices of natural gas. Pennsylvania is the nation’s second largest natural gas producer, but the only major fossil-fuel producing state that does not levy a severance tax on natural gas production.

Pennsylvania receives less than one percent of its state collections from the impact fee, according to recent study by the U.S. Energy Information Administration."

[Curmudgeoness]

1. Isn't this what they were warned about

when they decided to go with the impact fee? They knew from the very beginning that this income would decline significantly over time as fewer new wellheads were needed.

But to be fair, with prices where they are, a severance tax would also be bringing much less in than in the past.