Is Kasich's Severance Tax Proposal Fair To Carroll County?

By -
From The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register:
For decades, one tiny county in the rolling hills of Ohio's rural reaches was a depressed farm community saddled with double-digit unemployment. Now, Carroll County boasts more active oil and gas wells than any other in the state, and the tax dollars are flowing right along with the crude and natural gas.
And in the same county, where unemployment reached 13.4 percent in 2009 amid declines in agriculture, there's now bustling activity at Carroll restaurants, car dealerships and the area's one hotel.
While the economic surge has been a welcome relief, Carroll County and others enjoying the newfound prosperity aren't all that interested in sharing the wealth. But that decision might not be theirs to make.
Ohio lawmakers and policymakers in other states are weighing how to use taxes and fees on oil and gas production to bolster state budgets and economies without alienating local communities or scaring away energy development.
In Ohio, many Carroll residents are up in arms over a proposal by Gov. John Kasich to raise severance - or taxes on high-volume drillers - and then share the wealth from the state's oil and gas boom through an income tax cut.
"I'm not for supporting everybody else with what we're doing, when this has been an area that's been depressed for a long time and nobody's done anything to help us along the way," said Amy Rutledge, who directs the visitors' bureau and local chamber. "Why should Appalachia Ohio support the rest of the state?"
Read the rest of that article here.

Meanwhile, Crain's Cleveland Business has a guest post from the executive director of the Ohio Petroleum Council which also warns against the state rushing to raise taxes on the industry:
With the exploration of Ohio's Utica and Marcellus shale in its infancy, it's important for policymakers to better understand the economic viability of the play, before enacting any new tax policies.

The rationale is simple: You don't want to implement policies that can't meet their stated objective, or as the saying goes, “If you don't know where you're going, you'll probably end up somewhere else.”
Read the rest of that post here.

Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter!

Popular posts from this blog

Fracktivist in Dimock Releases Carefully Edited Video, Refuses to Release the Rest

By -
Image
From Energy in Depth: There is something very strange going on along Carter Road, in Dimock, Pennsylvania, and I’m not speaking of natural gas, methane migration, contamination, litigation or even the extensive water testing there by the EPA and others.  No, I’m talking about a new “Watergate” conspiracy, complete with 18 minutes of missing tape (well, video, actually). It seems the ever-present Green Party member and  naturist   Vera Scroggins  (a/k/a  Vera Duerga ) has posted a video of Craig Sautner meeting with the EPA.  Mysteriously, the video is but 14 seconds in length, cutting off conversation in what is obviously mid-stream.  It raises a question Craig Sautner, like  Ronald Reagan in Kings Row , might have asked, “Where’s the rest of me?’  Carter Road, isn’t Kings Row, of course, (at least not until you arrive at  the mansion Scott Ely, one of the Dimock litigants, is building with his royalty money ), but there appears to be a whole lot of film editing going on there to fi
Read more

The Second Largest Oil and Gas Merger - Cabot and Cimarex

By -
Image
       Due to investor pressure, the U.S shale drillers are being pushed to improve financial and operational performance after a few years of poor returns. Even though the industry has improved its numbers, when compared to last year, investors still want more to be done for them to earn more money.      That's why two mid-tier shale drillers, Cabot and Climarex, have decided to merge in order to eliminate $100 million in annual costs, which means more money for the investors. This all-stock transaction is valued at about $7.4 billion, which is relatively high for the oil and gas sector.      The new entity will be renamed and the headquarters located in Houston, Texas. Cabot shareholders will own 49.5 percent of the new entity, and Climarex the rest.       The Cimarex-Cabot merger will address the investor's demand for a higher amount of returning cash. The initial plan is to pay a 50-cent-per-share special dividend on closing the deal while offering a quarterly variable div
Read more

Do You Know The History of Fracking?

By -
Image
  In 2018, 59% of total oil production in the U.S came from hydraulic fracking, which means it accounted for more than two-thirds of domestically manufactured gas. By 2024, fracking will reach an astounding $68 billion market value! Of course, fracking is not a new drilling method as you can trace it back hundreds of years. That's why we want to consider the history of hydraulic fracturing (fracking). We will be stating historical facts about it and focusing on the major historical occurrences that have influenced modern-day fracking. Pre-Fracking Days The idea of fracking started back in 1862 when Edward A.L. Roberts (Civil War veteran) witnessed Confederate soldiers exploding artillery rounds into a canal that obstructed a battlefield. At the time, Edward A.L. Roberts called it superincumbent fluid tamping. On April 26th, 1865, Edward A.L. Roberts began experimenting with exploding torpedoes, which consisted of lowering a torpedo containing an amount of powder from fifteen to tw
Read more