Simmons: Methane tax threatens Oklahoma consumers

Stream ITOP - Episode 303 - Brook Simmons - Petroleum Alliance Of Oklahoma  8 - 6-21 by SHALE Magazine | Listen online for free on SoundCloud

 

Petroleum Alliance of Oklahoma President Brook A. Simmons issued the following statement following Thursday’s inclusion of a methane tax in a draft social and climate spending plan released by the U.S. House of Representatives:

Oklahoma consumers have long enjoyed some of the lowest energy costs in the nation thanks to our proximity to oil and natural production, refining, natural gas-powered electricity generation and energy transportation infrastructure. The methane tax proposed in the updated climate and social spending bill threatens that paradigm.

Extremist office holders now in positions of power have long opposed the U.S. oil and natural gas industry even though consumer demand for petroleum products continues to rise. Their solution is to tax and regulate the domestic oil and natural gas industry into extinction, offshore the production of reliable energy sources to other nations, and drive up consumer costs for food, fuel, electricity, home heating, and every staple of modern life.

This new tax would fall on the U.S. oil and natural gas industry simultaneously with what we expect to be the most stringent methane emissions regulations on the planet. We will continue our work to minimize emissions and produce the cleanest hydrocarbon molecules in the world without this tax. The world’s biggest emitters are China and India. Our OPEC+ rivals competing to end the U.S. oil and natural gas industry face neither of these tax or regulatory burdens.

The United States is the global leader in both oil and natural gas production and in global greenhouse gas emissions reductions. Oklahoma is proud to be part of that success. It is time for us to leverage our success and bring U.S. manufacturing back home instead of surrendering our economic security, energy security, and national security to others.

 The Petroleum Alliance of Oklahoma is the only trade association in Oklahoma that represents every segment of the oil and natural gas industry, representing more than 1,300 member companies engaged in the upstream, midstream and downstream sectors of the state’s defining industry.

Source: Petroleum Alliance