WESA Public Radio – Policy and research groups from Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio have joined forces to urge their states’ governors to adopt a common severance tax rate for companies drilling for gas and oil in the Marcellus and Utica Shale formations. Read
The Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, Policy Matters Ohio and the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy Monday sent a letter to Govs. Tom Corbett, John Kasich and Earl Ray Tomblin, saying the three states should set severance tax rates no lower than that of West Virginia. West Virginia currently has the highest rate of taxation among the three neighboring states, with a 5 percent tax on the value of oil and gas extracted at the well head, and a volume tax of nearly 5 cents per thousand cubic feet of production.
