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For Immediate Release
April 30, 2010

WASHINGTON - This week, a group of independent oil and natural gas producers made the trek to Capitol Hill from the Lone Star State to speak directly to members of Congress and other key policymakers in Washington about proposed tax hikes that could cripple their businesses and ability to deliver homegrown energy to the American people.

Walter G. "Tad" Mayfield, president of the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association (TIPRO), says that the nearly $40 billion in proposed taxes on American oil and natural gas producers "would curb domestic drilling".

This from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram article under the headline "Texas oil and gas execs urge Congress to keep tax breaks":

• Texas oil and gas producers fanned out across the Capitol Thursday in a campaign to convince lawmakers from the Lone Star State that Obama administration proposals to hike industry taxes would curb domestic drilling.
  
  Walter G. "Tad" Mayfield, the head of Houston-based Goldston Oil Corp., and president of the Texas group, insists that the tax incentives are needed for producers to operate marginally profitable wells and to offset the high capital costs of drilling.
  
  "With our business being such a risky business and so capital-intensive, it takes those provisions to attract the capital to put into the ground," Mayfield said.
  
  Mayfield said the tax incentives -- or lack of them -- help dictate the economics of potential wells. ... "Without these provisions, the marginal wells are not going to be drilled (or) prices will have to go up until at some point they are economical."

Such enormous tax hikes levied on the backs of small, independent producers - who on average employ only 12 workers and are responsible for drilling 90 percent of the nation's wells - will not help create jobs or increase domestic energy production or security. And while Congress is still considering these tens of billions of dollars in new taxes proposed by the White House, governors are facing with similar questions about increasing taxes on job-creating American oil and natural gas.

Alaska Governor Sean Parnell issued his first veto yesterday, rejecting a bill that "would have levied a significant overall tax increase on companies engaged in oil and gas production." The Associated Press reports this under the headline "Parnell vetoes bill to separate gas, oil taxes":

• Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell on Thursday vetoed a measure that would have changed the state's system of taxing oil and gas production together.
  
  Parnell echoed that in a statement Thursday and said the bill "effectively would have levied a significant overall tax increase on companies engaged in oil and gas production."

And earlier in the week, Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle "vetoed a bill that would have raised taxes on a barrel of oil." The Honolulu Advertiser reports this in a news report entitled "Lingle vetoes barrel tax increase":

• Gov. Linda Lingle vetoed a bill that would have raised taxes on a barrel of oil. The bill would have increased the barrel tax on petroleum products from 5 cents to $1.05 and bring in an extra $22 million a year - $13.2 million for the state's general fund and $8.8 million for food and energy security programs.
  
  "The tax increase would raise the cost of living and increase the cost of doing business in the state by making virtually everything more expensive, including electricity, gasoline, trucking, shipping, retail goods, food, public and school buses, and even the propane for backyard barbeques."

These commonsense actions from Governors Parnell and Lingle should send a strong message to Washington that tax increases will not solve our nation's long-term energy problems. Safely and responsibly producing American resources will help create good-paying jobs, stabilize prices at the pump, and drive down our dependence on unstable regions of the world to fuel our economy.