Top Stories

Natural Gas Donations Predict Marcellus Tax Votes

  An analysis of the House of Representatives vote on SB 1155 by MarcellusMoney.org

Severance Tax

A severance tax on natural gas drilled from the Marcellus Shale has become one the most contentious issues in Pennsylvania politics.  While the inclusion of a severance tax has been sidestepped by the legislature in the last two state budget processes, this summer Harrisburg promised to vote on a tax in October.  

Lobbying

In 2007, Pennsylvania became one of the last states to require lobbyists to report their expenditures and the issues on which they have been lobbying. From January 2007 through June 2010 the industry spent $5,220,038 lobbying state government officials. This graph shows the rapid rise in lobbying expenditures by the natural gas industry since reporting began.

Donations from the top environmental violators

On August 20, 2010, the Pennsylvania Land Trust Association released a report documenting the more than 1600 environmental violations committed by Marcellus Shale Drillers between January 1, 2010 and the release of the report.   Violations range from illegal discharge of industrial waste into streams and rivers to failure to install an adequate blowout preventer, the safety device that failed on the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico. 

Syndicate content