'Let's make Pennsylvania the Texas of the natural gas boom'

Another sharp contrast between Ed Rendell and Tom Corbett.

Last year, Gov. Ed Rendell and Democratic lawmakers pushed for a plan to impose the highest severance tax in the nation on Marcellus Shale extraction in Pennsylvania.

The plan was defeated in the Legislature, primarily by Republican lawmakers.

Despite losing the governor's mansion and the majority in the House, Democrats are back again pushing for a tax on Marcellus Shale.

Instead of rushing into a quick decision, Gov. Tom Corbett has appointed a commission headed by Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley to study how Pennsylvania can best protect its natural resources while benefiting from a potential windfall.

From Corbett's Tuesday budget address:

But government is not meant to be the answer for jobs. The private sector is. The Marcellus Shale discovery, a natural resource deposit that rivals the ages of coal and oil, is a great example.

Limited government means not mistaking someone else's property for your own. There has been much pressure to tax the gas being drawn from the Marcellus Shale. The Marcellus is a resource, a source of potential wealth, the foundation of a new economy. Not just something new to tax.

Pennsylvania can become a center not just of resources but a center of the industry that backs up those resources. For every pipe running a mile underground we should have jobs at distribution centers, at refineries, at shipping ports, and the offices and companies that run them.

These resources, by the way, belong to the people who own the mineral rights. Those people are getting their fair share by working out their own leases with the companies doing the drilling. That's how it should be. That's the American way. What Pennsylvanians will gain is the jobs, the spinoffs, and if we don't scare these industries off with new taxes, the follow-up that comes along. You see underneath the Marcellus Shale is another bonanza. It's called the Utica Shale. And where Marcellus promises 50 years of energy the Utica promises riches going into the next century. Let's make Pennsylvania the hub of this boom. Just as the oil companies decided to headquarter in one of a dozen states with oil ... let's make Pennsylvania the Texas of the natural gas boom. I'm determined that Pennsylvania not lose this moment. We have the chance to get it right the first time, the chance to grow our way out of hard days.

Governor Corbett Announces Formation of Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission