Oil Tax Commentary

 

WSJ.  Video interview, "Why shale critics are wrong."


Calgary Herald by Stephen Ewart.  With the NDP government’s first throne speech Monday, Premier Rachel Notley began disappointing the party’s core supporters in the environmental community by championing exports of Alberta oil to global markets as part of a Canadian energy strategy.

Recently, we commented on the onerous similarities between oil tax perspectives of Governors Kasich of Ohio and Palin of Alaska.  

Alaska has just now, after nearly a decade of economic downturn, managed to repeal and overcome some of the damage done by Palin's populist, anti-oil tax policy.  But Kasich would apparently prefer to learn about taxation principles from personal experience and the hard knocks school rather than history.

Today, our mid-Atlantic energy analyst friend updates us on the Kasich oil tax probe.
 
He wrote us that: " Governor Kasich’s effort to ram through an onerous and massively flawed severance tax through by wrapping it inside the state budget was pushed aside, thanks to the stalwart efforts of House Republicans."
 
"The statement by Senate President Faber that “we have never had everybody in the same room together” gets to the heart of a major impediment  to resolving this issue for over four years. Until now, there have been major players who saw this issue as a potential source of a “win” for political gain, rather than trying to find common ground for both the volume level and application of tax revenues.  
 
"The Ohio Oil and Gas Association (OOGA} has shown it is ready to work with both the Administration and the House and Senate to develop a plan that is fair to the people of Ohio, while providing adequate incentives to properly develop Ohio’s natural resources."  (Reference)
 
We note that elected leaders of both parties are tempted, during trying economic times, to unreasonably tax the few to benefit the many voters (i.e. Kasich and Palin are both republicans).  Though this practice can violate Economics 101 and damage citizens and their economies in the long run, it often benefits populist politicians in the short run.  It is the modern version of, "Lynch Mob Mentality", whose psychology or lack thereof discourages critical thinking.   -dh