(Promoted by Colorado Pols)
Representative Ray Scott of Mesa CountyВ introduced a bill into the Colorado Legislature on Friday that would exempt oil and gas wells permittedВ in the next two yearsВ from the states’ severance tax.В В He claims the point is to help fund education, because after the two year free ride, he intendsВ subsequent severance taxes will be earmarked to fund college tuitions. Yeah, …right.
His supposition is that a freebie from the state is necessary and desirable to spur a slug of permits that will then create a resultant uptick in drilling, which will then spur job creation. He claims the idea is much like Amendment 58 which went down in 2008 by nearly 60 % at the ballot box…but it isn’t.
The Bill Ritter supported Amendment 58 would have raised severance taxes on O&G production and would have ended the decades long Ad Valorem Tax Credit that alreadyВ allows O&G companies to reduce their severance taxes in the amount of the property taxes they owe.В This discount, which they alone enjoy, В amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes they don’t pay…year after year. To offer them another freebie and try to link it to a bill that did just the opposite to the industryВ isВ plainly dishonest.
But, when you are a legislative toad for the oil and gas industry, you can never be quite dishonest enough…so Rep. Scott deals out this whopper…
 “The oil and gas industry in Colorado is arguably the largest industry in our state,
This , of course, is not true…and I believe Ray Scott knows it. В O&G are part of the energy and mining sector of our state economy…a sector which makes up under 5% of our state economic output. He is either lying or ignorant.
he also offers up another gem…
“Each derrick’s going to create potentially 200 jobs. If we could get one extra derrick in Mesa County right now, that 200 jobs is important. If we got five, that’s a thousand jobs.”
I am not sure what sort of math the good Representative is using to calculate this (or where he gets his data), but it is the same sort of calculation, I will bet, that allows the “blonde lady in the black pantsuit” to claim O&G supports 11,000,000 jobs nationally. I have checked withВ the U.S. Dept. of Labor and I can only say to her, “liar, liar, pantsuit on fire” because she isn’t telling the truth…
and neither is Ray Scott.
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Wow… this seems like it wouldn’t even get much traction with gas patch legislators since it would encourage O&G companies to work newly permitted areas for the next two years and neglect areas they’re currently in. Counties like Mesa with mature operations would see rigs sitting idle while places along the Front Range that are marginal but frackable would see a flurry of action during the tax holiday.
You get some real winners elected over there don’t you…
Ray Scott is just the next in a long line of intellectually and ethically challenged elected officials that represent western Colorado. It is as though the redleg majority here cannot stand the notion of leaving the 1950s.
The only thing that matters here is fealty to the Chamber of Commerce and Club 20. Here in Happy Valley, progressive thought is tantamount to heresy.
The only thing that matters in Garfield and Mesa counties is the support of the right wing media: the Daily Sentinel.
Following is a link to an interesting piece from Colorado Statesman. It is written by a realtor who has the courage to divulge the effect drilling and fracking is having on the real estate market. A good read.
http://coloradostatesman.com/content/993955-drilling-and-fracking-have-destroyed-value-our-most-significant-investment-%3F-our-home
wow, good article
Sums up the issue well.
So I must ask, what is Colorado’s largest industry?
Travel and tourism I assume.
The services industry…followed by: finance, insurance, and real estate; government; information; manufacturing; retail trade; wholesale trade; construction; and then mining…O&G is a part of mining. This is from the Colorado Data Book (TOTH, Konola!!)
I’m guessing “travel and tourism” falls under services.
not sure. Could be part of Arts and Recreation, which falls right below Mining. I didn’t see the answer there.
Once again, Dennis Webb reports the important stuff…
“WPX hopes to drill at least two more horizontal Niobrara wells in the Piceance Basin this year, starting within a six-mile radius of the first well, to help it evaluate how productive the formation is across the basin.”
That is quite a setback…isn’t the front range activity mostly in the Niobrara?
or what may even be more telling…
“Horizontal drilling involves drilling down and then horizontally along the shale formation — in this case, 10,200 feet deep and 4,600 feet laterally.”