From our friends at Penn Futures: Pennsylvania has now lost $200 million in revenue due to its failure to pass a drilling tax. The drilling tax ticker maintained by the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center hit the $200 million mark this afternoon. This revenue could have been used to avoid or lessen cuts to environmental programs, schools, colleges, healthcare and programs protecting children, to name just a few.
Pennsylvania infamously remains the only major gas drilling state without a drilling tax or fee. ExxonMobil, Shell, Chesapeake and others – some of the largest and most profitable corporations on the planet – are expanding their deep gas operations in Pennsylvania. These corporations pay a drilling tax everywhere else and expect to pay it here. And 70 percent of Pennsylvanians want the industry to pay the tax. Across the country, 98 percent of gas is produced in states that have drilling taxes and fees.
Want to take action?
Contact your political officials using the easy tools provided here. There is also a widely circulating petition that may be worth adding your name to.
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