State far away from shale gas compromise, Senate GOP says
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HARRISBURG -- Senate Republican leaders gave a discouraging forecast today for the chances of enacting a new tax on natural gas extracted from Marcellus Shale anytime soon.
"We are far apart from any agreement" with Democratic House leaders and Gov. Ed Rendell, said Sen. Dominic Pileggi of Delaware County, Republican majority leader.
"We are still worlds apart" on finding an acceptable tax rate, agreed Lt. Gov. Joe Scarnati of Jefferson, the Senate president pro tem.
They said the only way they can see for a tax to be enacted in the next two weeks is for the House to start over -- with a new, constitutionally acceptable bill -- and send it to the Senate no later than Nov. 1 -- the day before the election. They said they will not return for any business after the election, and the session ends Nov. 30.
If Republican Tom Corbett is elected governor, he has said there won't be any Marcellus Shale gas tax.
Mr. Scarnati said the bill passed by the House two weeks ago, calling for a levy of 39 cents per thousand cubic feet of gas, is too high and is unacceptable to the Senate.
He also didn't like the legislative "vehicle" used by the House, which was a Senate-passed bill on a different subject that had its original language stripped out and the tax language inserted. Mr. Scarnati said all revenue bills must originate in the House, and this one didn't.
Mr. Scarnati also said that long-time gas producers in the state that drill shallow wells should be exempted from any new tax. The Marcellus gas wells are deep underground and those drillers are more financially able to bear the cost of such a tax, but the smaller, shallow-well drillers are not, he said.
At a news conference today, Mr. Rendell and House Speaker Keith McCall, D-Carbon, said they don't think the gas-tax amendment that the House put on a Senate-passed bill is a fatal flaw, but they said the entire problem could be solved simply by having the Senate add a gas-tax compromise provision to one of two bills that the House has already passed and are now sitting in the Senate.
First Published October 12, 2010 11:11 am
