They’re Gaslighting Pennsylvania Again
Rep. Tarik Khan December 22, 2025 | 10:04 AM
By State Rep Tarik Khan
After I called for a common-sense severance tax on natural gas, Big Oil and Gas did what they always do. They didn’t argue the facts, they tried to scare people and intimidate me.
When big and powerful corporations stand to lose their sweetheart deals, they confuse the facts, scare people, and attack the messenger. Just as I said they would in my original op-ed.
That is exactly what happened when the Marcellus Shale Coalition responded to my call for Pennsylvania to finally enact a fair severance tax on natural gas. Instead of explaining why Pennsylvania should remain the only major gas-producing state without one, their lobbyists grabbed the same tired playbook, personal attacks, fear-mongering, and half-truths meant to make people doubt their own common sense.
Here is the simple truth. Pennsylvania sits on one of the largest natural gas reserves in the country. We are second only to Texas in production. Texas raises more than $2 billion a year from a severance tax on gas. Pennsylvania raises zero. A severance tax is simply a fee companies pay when they extract a public resource and sell it for profit. Almost every other major energy-producing state does this. We do not.
That is not bad luck. It is a bad deal.
The industry claims we already tax gas through the impact fee. That fee was never meant to replace a severance tax. It fluctuates, it is limited, and it was designed to offset local drilling impacts, not to ensure Pennsylvanians receive fair value for a resource that belongs to all of us. Even with the impact fee, Pennsylvania still comes up billions short compared to other states, including Texas.
The industry says Texas has lower taxes. That’s not true. Texas taxes differently, including higher sales taxes and a severance tax that makes energy companies pay for what they take, raising more than $2 billion a year. Even looking at the full tax picture, Big Oil and Gas pays much more in Texas than in Pennsylvania. And they conveniently ignore that we just voted to cut taxes for Pennsylvania corporations for the third year in a row. That’s not an argument, that’s spin.
They also claim that any fair tax will kill jobs or raise energy prices. We have heard this line every single time big corporations face paying their fair share. But states with severance taxes continue to produce energy, attract investment, and employ thousands of people, including unionized workers. Companies drill where the gas is and where infrastructure exists. Pennsylvania has both. Energy prices are shaped by regional and national markets, not by whether Pennsylvania asks giant multinational corporations to contribute a small share of their profits back to the state where those profits are made.
The industry also tries to frame this as an attack on workers or families who rely on natural gas. That is gaslighting. A severance tax does not apply to consumers. It applies to gas already being extracted and sold for profit. Pennsylvanians already pay their gas bills. What we do not get is a fair return.
That is why I introduced legislation with Representative Chris Pielli (D-Chester) to establish a fair severance tax in Pennsylvania. Done right, it can generate hundreds of millions of dollars a year to help fully fund public schools, invest in SEPTA and infrastructure, clean up abandoned and orphaned wells, and lower long-term costs for communities across the Commonwealth. Big Oil and Gas calls these “pet projects.” Get real.
Pennsylvanians are not asking for anything radical. We are asking for what Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana already do. We are asking not to be taken advantage of.
And if fighting for a fair deal for Pennsylvanians instead of doing the bidding of oil and gas lobbyists makes me a “typical politician,” then sign me up.
Big Oil and Gas wants people to believe the status quo is the best we can do. Pennsylvanians know better.