Natural Gas Intelligence – A recently released report by the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, a liberal think tank, recommends increasing the state’s severance tax on natural gas liquids (NGL) if they are not being used to develop more in-state industries such as chemical manufacturing. Read
The center warned that the state is poised to repeat some of the mistakes it has made with coal production in the past, saying that as oil and gas is increasingly shipped from the state’s Marcellus and Utica shales, a portion of jobs, profits and tax revenue is going with it. The report urged lawmakers to increase the severance tax on NGLs from the current 5% to 10% and offer a tax credit to offset the higher rate only if the NGLs are processed at an ethane cracker or similar manufacturing facilities in the state.