Poster: Prokhor Zakharov // Valentin Sigalov
Now that we know for a fact that Democrat Tom Wolf will be Governor of Pennsylvania, what sort of changes can we hear about in terms of environment and energy? Of course, you know what I’m talking about - fracking.
Republican Governor Corbett, recently ousted by winner Tom Wolf, was conservative when it came to taxing fracking companies. He claimed that taxing fracking companies would lead to these companies laying off workers, leave Pennsylvania for greener pastures, and drive our costs up - generally worsening the Pennsylvania economy. While some of this might have been true, it was under his watch that the Pennsylvanian budget had a disastrous deficit of $1 billion while other states enjoyed a surplus in money.
Pennsylvania is the only state with no extraction tax, despite it’s booming natural gas reserves - but probably not for long. Wolf's plan for fracking involves placing a 5% tax on extraction. He claims that this tax will generate at least $1 billion for the state. We need the tax to fund the education system “to make sure that [the industry] has the employees who have relevant skills.” He also mentioned that fracking should be done with proper oversight to prevent damage to the environment - the money generated from the tax will be pumped to the Department of Environmental Protection for this purpose.
According to Wolf, "Guess what? The money we need to fund our schools lies right underneath your feet."
As a liberal myself, I'm hoping Wolf won't fall back on his promises.
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