West Virginia Metro News, Morgantown Dominion-Post – The Senate Finance Committee approved a stretched-out, slowed-down version of the bill to reduce the severance tax on steam coal from 5 percent to 3 percent. Read full article.
The committee also approved one of the two House bills aimed at gathering money to cap orphaned oil and gas wells across the state.
The coal legislation, House Bill 3142, is intended to help the state’s ailing steam coal industry compete better against other states with no severance tax, cheaper coal or both.
As it came from the House of Delegates, the bill spread the reduction across two years, costing the state $30 million per year.
