PITTSBURGH POST-TRIBUNE: … [Gov. Tom] Corbett has been their top cheerleader. He’s offered more than $1 billion in tax breaks to the chemical arm of Royal Dutch Shell plc to encourage it to build an ethane processing plant — called a cracker — in Beaver County. He was willing to invest so much because it’s those types of plants and the manufacturers they feed that will help ensure the state’s gas boom gives a sustained benefit to Pennsylvania instead of a quick flame out, he said.
“If you don’t do something with (the gas), it wasn’t worth having it in the first place,” Corbett said during his 20-minute speech. “We have a bounty of resources, but we have to build on them. We can’t count on gas and oil to take care of us forever. We need to constantly be drilling not just for the minerals but for new ideas.”
Producers and petrochemical companies are trying to figure out whether to build plants here or pipelines out of the region, said Paul Hart, editor of Hart’s magazine Midstream Business. The upfront costs of building in Pennsylvania are in the billions, much more expensive than simply building pipelines out of the region, he said… (more)
EDITOR: “If you don’t do something with (the gas), it wasn’t worth having it in the first place.” Tax it as do other states!
By all means, tax it. But tax it at the consumer level so the tax isn’t hidden.