Energy

Any Pennsylvanians who believe the hype surrounding a nuclear bailout should take a close look at what’s been going on in Ohio.

Australia’s Northern Territory (NT) is trying to decide how best to harness a newly-discovered onshore natural gas play to drive economic growth, and for five days at the start of July, PMA President & CEO David N. Taylor joined Pennsylvania state officials on a visit to the NT to offer help and advice.

“The Beetaloo Basin play is believed to be as large as the Marcellus, and of similar composition” Taylor said. “But there are numerous obstacles to overcome to get the gas and gas by-products to the domestic market where they are needed most.”

Governor Tom Wolf has been travelling the state peddling this year’s version of his tiresome tax hike plan. His redundant tax on natural gas production is masquerading as an infrastructure improvement plan under the hopeful sounding name of “Restore Pennsylvania.” In typical tax-and-spend political irony, the plan would penalize the success of the very industry that is actually helping to restore Pennsylvania.

An economy-wide, cap-and-trade carbon emission petition sent to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) last week for review not only undermines the General Assembly’s authority to debate such a costly and far-reaching regulatory scheme, but it raises constitutional concerns as well.

Governor Wolf recently joined a regional compact of eight other states and Washington D.C. to reduce carbon from motor vehicle emissions. The newly formed “Transportation and Climate Initiative” has a hopeful government promo line: cap-and-invest. But if this latest top-down market meddling follows the same path as the program it’s modeled on, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) that targets power plants - and nothing suggests it won’t - it should be more aptly tagged tax-and-impoverish.

President Donald Trump, in a bold claim echoed by economists and business leaders, said his tax reform plan will be “like rocket fuel” for the economy. Last week, the U.S. House set the stage to approve that plan.

To get it to the President’s desk by end of the calendar year, Republican Leaders will have to reinforce some in their ranks against the tired litany that pro-growth tax relief is a “giveaway to the rich.”