West Virginia is in competition with Ohio and Pennsylvania for an ethane cracker plant.  That appears to be driving legislation to encourage industry to “Pick me, Pick me.”   Per an AP report, The House suspended procedural rules on Monday to allow for an early vote on a bill to give big tax breaks on real estate and property taxes for 25 years to a cracker developer.  The bill was passed over to the Senate chamber.  To qualify a cracker plant must be cost at least $2 billion.  That leaves the announced Aither catalytic cracker plant out; it is expected to cost about a third that price.

Ken Ward reviewed the question of whether or not big tax breaks for a cracker were justified back on December 19th.  That post in Sustained Outrage referred to an analysis by the West Virginia Center for Budget and Policy that pointed out that industry already enjoys lower taxes in WV than in OH or PA.  Our real estate tax rate is much lower than our neighboring states of PA and OH.  Thus, even though WV imposes property taxes and our neighbors do not, the total tax burden in WV is  lower than that of  it’s neighbors.   The industry will be holding onto an estimated $500 million dollars in lost taxes that our counties will not receive to fund education and other county government functions if the bill is finalized.

Chesapeake Shifts Rigs to Wet Gas Areas

Recent news shows that the drilling activity is shifting to areas of wet gas i.e. natural gas that has higher percentages of the heavier hydrocarbons such as ethane, propane and butane.  Here is a map showing where the wet gas and dry gas are found in the Marcellus formation.  Most of the wet gas is in the northwest corner of PA and the far western part of WV.  But then there’s the Utica shale which is richer in wet gas.  Here is a map of the Utica shale. Those who follow the shale gas news are aware that Chesapeake Energy is excited about the Utica opportunity.  In fact today Chesapeake announced that drilling rigs will be shifted to areas of wet gas.  Per Paul Gough of the web- based Pittsburgh Business Times:

That means the eight Chesapeake rigs in southwestern Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia will be cut to six and redeployed to the liquids-rich areas here; the 18 in northeastern Pennsylvania will be downsized to 12 rigs.

Delegate Mike Manypenny

Delegate Mike Manypenny (D – Taylor) is preparing to champion for surface owners rights and environmental/public health  protections in the upcoming January session of the WV Legislature.  Mannix Porterfield reported for the Herald tribune that Manypenny has developed 23 bills because he thinks the recently inked Marcellus bill didn’t do enough to safeguard the environment and protect rights of the landowners.

Manypenny  was one of five Delegates who voted against the Governor’s version of the Marcellus bill.  The draft bill created by the Select Committee of Senators and Delegates was intended to introduce law protective of surface owners and public health.  However, after being worked over by Governor Earl Ray Tomblin and stripped of many of its protective provisions, it was transformed into, if not industry-friendly, very industry -acceptable bill before it was introduced to the Legislature.

COMMENT: It was telling of the level to which industry asserts its influence over our elected representatives that the eviscerated version of the bill breezed through the Senate and House with only few amendments restored before it became law.

To anyone who was not informed about the actual content of the bill,  who was not aware of the outrage and betrayal felt by the Select Committee members who worked so hard on the draft bill, and who was not aware of the criticisms heaped upon the bill members of  WVSOROS and the WV Sierra Club, the passage of a Marcellus bill probably sounded like a good thing.  My local newspaper contained all the celebratory quotes by the Governor complete with verbage such as “This landmark piece of legislation provides clear rules to the natural gas industry, protects our communities, surface owners and waterways while sending a clear message: West Virginia wants jobs and we will protect our rights and our environment.”  Some folks beg to differ, Guvnuh.

Click here for full story.

The West Virginia Sierra Club is urging citizens to contact their Delegates and call for stronger Marcellus shale legislation after the Governor’s anemic version of the bill was passed from the Senate to the House chamber of the WV legislature on Tuesday.  Chuck Wyrostok, WV Sierra Club Outreach Director, issued an email stating,

“It is citizen pressure that caused the calling of this Special Session and it will be citizen pressure that will stop passage of a meaningless Marcellus bill.”

The email further identified some major areas of deficiency of the bill:

• Does not allow public notice and comment period for drilling applications.
• Does not require DEP to regulate air emissions at well sites.
• Allows gas wells to be too close to homes, water wells, and streams.
• Allows onsite burial of pit waste.
• Allows DEP to issue waivers for many requirements.
• Does not protect areas of Karst geology from drilling operations.
• Fails to require companies to negotiate with surface owners.
• Removes protections for drilling in special and sensitive areas.

For info on how to contact your Delegates today, click here.

Ry Rivard of the Charleston Daily Mail has a good story with comments from a handful of members of the Select Committee who express distaste for the Governor’s bill and great disappointment in the lack of respect for the work done in developing a committee draft bill.  “Delegate Woody Ireland, R-Ritchie, a member of the select committee, said Tomblin had moved in favor of the industry despite “hours and hours and miles and miles” of work by the committee.”

The House Judiciary Committee added amendments to the bill on Monday in an effort to restore some of the provisions that were excised by the Governor from the Select Committee’s version of the bill.  Again, quoting the Daily Mail story:

“Environmentalists and some lawmakers said Tomblin’s proposal is too friendly to the gas industry. They say Tomblin removed some of the regulatory teeth from a draft bill approved last month by a 10-member joint House and Senate committee.”

Good news from Charleston!   Today the joint interim Judiciary Subcommittee A met, and with the benefit of a quorum, conducted business.  The hydraulic fracking legislation passed and is now heading for the Legislature.