Chris Lilienthal brings us the statistic that should be on every Democrat’s lips as we head into budget season:
Our Drilling Tax Ticker tracks the revenue Pennsylvania has lost since October 1, 2009 by not having a tax in place. It shot past $300 million Monday morning.
State cuts announced in January to services ranging from help for victims of domestic violence to hospital trauma centers to prekindergarten could have been avoided if the Legislature had enacted a drilling tax.
Plus, the $300 million in lost revenue may be just the beginning. Reuters reported last week that a Marcellus Shale “impact fee” bill now before the state Legislature could cost $24 billion to $48 billion in lost revenue over the next 20 years.
$24 billion? Yes. Reuters calculated that at current gas prices a Pennsylvania shale well would generate $2.4 million over 20 years under a tax comparable to West Virginia’s. By comparison, an impact fee approved by the state Senate would generate only $360,000 over that 20-year period.
PBPC pointed out this time last year that Tom Corbett and the Republicans don’t actually need to make any education cuts, because there are much weaker claims on taxpayer dollars. There are $1.8 billion worth of special interest tax breaks and loopholes that should get cut before anybody takes a dime out of public education or Medicaid or anything else. Penn Future has identified a further $2.9 billion worth of fossil fuel subsidies. That’s $4.7 billion worth of weak claims on the state budget. Remember that when Tom Corbett tries to say we’re broke in his upcoming budget address.
The solution for fraccing pollution is waterless fraccing; Gasfrac has done over a 1000 fracs with gelled propane; you don’t need any water; you don’t produce any waste fluids (no need for injection wells); no need to flare (no CO2 emissions); truck traffic is cut to a trickle from 900+ trips per well for water fraccing to 30 with propane fracs; and on top of that the process increases oil and gas production; it is a win for the industry, a win for the community and a win for the environment.
It's the perfect storm. Traditional Pennsylvania political corruption blended with loony right-wing ideology. And, as usual, we voters get the shaft, providing our right to vote is revoked this time around. And yes, I'm being a bit sarcastic.
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