West Virginia Blue
The Best Blogging Community in West Virginia Democratic politics, progressive policies, the good life and free living in Wild, Wonderful West Virginia.
Acting Senate President Jeff Kessler is thinking outside the box about West Virginia's natural resources. Kessler's natural gas proposal would have the State hold back a quarter of the severance tax dollars stemming from the production of Marcellus Shale. This money would be placed into an interest-bearing special revenue account and could be used for the State's long term liabilities, economic diversification, and improvements to our crumbling infrastructure in the decades to come.
I think a candidate like Kessler is the State's best hope of bucking the trend of absentee robber barons exploiting the State for our natural resources. I hope they tax the hell out of this natural gas and increase the severance tax on coal as well. This is our land and we need to make sure that our resources are extracted in a way that do not destroy our communities; put our workers at risk; and once extracted, benefit our citizens for generations to come.
Copyright 2011 West Virginia Blue
Site content may be used for any purpose without explicit permission unless otherwise specified.
This site exists thanks to financial support from BlogPAC, dedicated volunteers and participation by members of this community. The views expressed at West Virginia Blue belong solely to their respective authors.
