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"Let the market decide."
"No, not like that!"
Rep. Cyrus Western (R-Big Horn) brought the bill on behalf of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming.
Ffs
That shouldn't be a law and fucking Petroleum Association should have 0 hand in writing laws.
"No! We hate free money that doesn't even extract resources!"
-Wyoming's stupid ass
This example is for a 640 acre property leased at $12,160, which the oil company claims was an artificially inflated price because a conservation group was bidding.
That seems like a ludicrously small dollar figure. My guess that that the state is leasing the land cheaply, then making up for that with severance taxes on the extracted fossil fuels and minerals. Conservation groups would not generate those severance taxes.
My guess that that the state is leasing the land cheaply, then making up for that with severance taxes on the extracted fossil fuels and minerals.
That's exactly how it works and it's why the State of Wyoming cannot afford to let leases go to organizations that won't use them.
To be clear I'm not giving them a pass. They are choosing to damage the environment and accelerate climate change in order to be a tax haven for the ultra-wealthy. They could absolutely find another more sustainable way to find the government if they wanted, and deserve to be criticized for the choices they've made.
They could absolutely find another more sustainable way to find the government if they wanted
You mean like building the largest Wind Farm in the United States and possibly the world?
How about we retire coal plants and replace them with next-gen Small Modular Nuclear Reactors?
We could also build really large solar farms on all this empty land we have.
Wyoming re-wrote it's tax code over a decade ago so that all power generation in the State is taxed. It's been busy since then expanding transmission lines and smacking down anyone who tries to stop the build out of green power. So yeah, it has been working on environmentally sustainable ways to fund the Government.
Our University is also a leader in Carbon Sequestration Technology and we're building the worlds largest Carbon Sequestration project.
There's a lot more going on around energy production in Wyoming than most people know about.
While that's all true, it's also true that Wyoming today has the highest CO2 per capita production in the US at 96.4 tons.
The re-writing of the tax code you mentioned created the "Cowboy Cocktail", making Wyoming a tax haven for billionaires and enabling money laundering.
They are taking some small, slow steps towards mitigating the damage they have been doing for decades and are continuing for the foreseeable future.
Wyoming today has the highest CO2 per capita production
Sounds like that's largely because they are the top coal producing state (40% of US coal). In 2023, 71% of power generation was from coal. 23% was from renewables, with about 90% of that coming from wind. But yeah, coal's just going to produce a lot more CO2, even compared to other fossil fuels.
Um... Yes. Just to be clear, I am advocating that Wyoming produce less coal.
And for the US (the whole world really) to consume less.
Can't tax it.
Can tax or charge for other things like hunting licenses, equipment, ammo, guides, camping permits, etc.
That can't possibly measure up to their goals
You might be surprised: Hunting in the US alone generates 12 BILLION dollars a year in taxes alone (not including any other outdoor activity, license fees, or related revenue).
Public parks generate over 200 billion all by themselves every year, these are only parts of the equation too.
The more you look into it, the more you realize that, holy shit, this stuff generates a fuckton of revenue for the government (never mind all the other benefits it has).
Even if nobody gave a single fuck about the environment or humanity's future, the financial benefits alone are a very compelling argument (unless, you know, these aspects are ignored because politicians are in the pockets of oil companies)
Conservatism is a plague of death.
THIS SENTENCE, is corruption in plain sight to such an absurd degree that we are expected to be nonchalant in our acceptance of it. I'm sure a lot of people (present company excluded) drove right on by this sentence without stopping to marvel at how at ease big oil and gas are with expecting laws to favor them:
“So rather than wait for that to happen, we thought, ‘Well, let’s step in now and let’s put in place a bill that acts as a deterrent to doing that,” Petroleum Association of Wyoming President Pete Obermueller told WyoFile.
This doesn't stink of shitty lobbying or corruption...does Wyoming get a kick back for what's mined/drilled after the rights are transferred? Oh they don't‽ Then why the fuck do they care as long as the check clears.
does Wyoming get a kick back for what’s mined/drilled after the rights are transferred?
As a matter of fact production does get taxed. So 12k up front for the lease is a pittance compared to what the ongoing can bring.
Wyoming has been taken over by billionaires. You can't just have people buying up land and not destroying it. There is value to extract.
Murdering the climate was really their first priority all along, wasn't it?
I genuinely believe that they're too proudly ignorant to get it. To them, climate change is something they're worried about in Ivory tower universities and on the political left. It's a proud ignorance that says "you smart people aren't going to tell US what to do."
Reminder that one of their (former) politicians thought an out-of-season snowball disproved global warming and nobody along the way told him how stupid that was...which is my proof that these politicians don't even have anyone in their orbit that understands how stupid that was.
Anyway, I still think making obscene amounts of money is their first priority and they either can't or won't understand the damage they do.
I think they get it, they just don't think they'll ever experience consequences. They can always move somewhere comparatively insulated from harm or don't see a point in worrying about anything that happens outside of their own lifetimes or are techno optimists and assume we'll crack fusion or invent efficient carbon scrubbers
Ahh, you know...you're not wrong; and probably the balanced answer is that the corporations themselves have a huge number of employees with beliefs along a wide spectrum, and there's definitely some sociopaths at the top like you describe. Another portion of their employees justify it for a paycheck, some that want to get out of the business, some people that are probably true believers in their companies, some in denial etc. I can't claim to accurately guess at what the breakdown would be though.
Even though Colorado has extensive drilling that has ruined large swaths of the state, there's such a big difference in how our nature looks versus Wyoming's. They trash the whole state to such a disgusting degree that I need a large trashbag every time I go hiking there. This is par for the course.
They trash the whole state to such a disgusting degree that I need a large trashbag every time I go hiking there.
And yet you still come; why is that? Stay in Colorado.
Happily. You and your sister-wife can keep all the trash to yourselves. It's your culture.
This is awful. They changed the game just so environmentalists [all of us really] can’t win
The change, made under emergency rulemaking in June...
really makes clear what the state's priorities are
I pointed it out separately, but this sentence makes it even more clear.
‘Well, let’s step in now and let’s put in place a bill that acts as a deterrent to doing that,” Petroleum Association of Wyoming President Pete Obermueller told WyoFile.
Hey Wyoming congressman/congresswoman, it's your oil and gas friends and we are going to need you to write some legislation for us here... Oh, Congress is out of session? You'll need to go ahead and reconvene then, sorry.
Corruption in plain slight.
this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2024
156 points (98.8% liked)
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