Push back is underway against Reuters for a recent story that blamed Oklahoma’s oil industry for its $1.3 billion dollar budget gap and resulting large cuts in funding for education. It comes from the Independent Petroleum Association of America and its public outreach campaign, EnergyIndepth.org based in Dallas, Texas and accuses Reuters of ignoring some important oil industry facts and using “dubious assumptions, including a denial of basic economics.”
Writer Steve Everley said the Reuters report is without merit and that it oversimplified a statewide problem while simply using the oil and natural gas industry as a scapegoat.
The article said Reuters failed to acknowledge vertical well completions exceeded horizontals in Oklahoma during previous tax discussions; omitted broad public support for tax policy change; and assumed a 600 percent tax increase would have no impact no the activity being taxed.
Energy in Depth, founded by IPAA in 2009, also said Reuters cited one group’s calculations on the budget gap but failed to disclose that the group had lobbied for years for higher tax on energy companies. The article also suggested the production tax was the only one paid by the energy industry but ignored hundreds of millions of dollars in other tax revenue.
Click here to read original Ok Energy Today story and link to Reuters story.