Pittsburgh, Pa. – Marcellus Shale Coalition president David Callahan issued the following statement in response to Gov. Tom Wolf’s repeated call earlier today for even higher energy taxes:
“Gov. Wolf and his team simply don’t get it. Pennsylvania already has a severance tax – it’s the impact fee, which has funded $2+ billion for community and environmental programs across the entire Commonwealth over the last several years. It was disappointing to hear the governor once again call for additional energy taxes that will harm consumers, local jobs, American energy production and the Commonwealth’s ability to recover from the pandemic.
“His fuzzy math – citing a provably wrong tax rate of 2.8 percent – reflects the unseriousness of his proposal, which has been squarely rejected by leading business and manufacturing organizations as well as a broad chorus of bipartisan lawmakers. In truth, the governor’s proposal represents a combined energy tax rate of more than 12 percent, which would be the nation’s highest.
“If the governor was serious about accelerating our economic recovery – which should be a top priority for every policymaker – he’d be focused on growing and encouraging natural gas production, infrastructure and use, not punishing this critical industry and its hardworking women and men that are helping combat this pandemic.”
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