Natural gas doesn’t belong to everyone
Notice: Undefined variable: article_ad_placement3 in /usr/web/cs-washington.ogdennews.com/wp-content/themes/News_Core_2023_WashCluster/single.php on line 128
Reading your editorial of Dec 24, “The time is right for a severance tax,” specifically, the next to last sentence where you said, “…The industry has also been getting a good deal on natural resources that belong to all of us,” reminded me of the old fable about the Little Red Hen. This summary I got from Wikipedia summarizes the fable:
“In the tale, the little red hen finds a grain of wheat and asks for help from the other farmyard animals … to plant it, but none of them volunteer.
At each later stage (harvest, threshing, milling the wheat into flour and baking the flour into bread), the hen again asks for help from the other animals, but again she gets no assistance.
Finally, the hen completed her task and asks who will help her eat the bread. This time, all the previous nonparticipants eagerly volunteer. She declines their help stating no one aided her in the preparation work. Thus, the hen eats it with her chicks leaving none for anyone else.”
The moral of this story is that those who say no to contributing to a product do not deserve to enjoy the product: “If any would not work, neither should he eat”.”
As the owner of numerous properties over the last 50 years, I struggled with the purchase price, paying the real estate taxes, insurance, costs of upkeep and the myriad of other costs related to the ownership of property. At no time do I recall your editorial board putting out a call that all citizens are responsible for sharing in those costs. Yet, your call for a severance tax said the minerals (in this case the natural gas) under my property belong to everyone.
While I am not an attorney, I thought it was settled law that the owner of surface lands also own the minerals. If that is not the case, do you also advocate the timber harvested on the surface of my property belongs to everyone? Would you also advocate 5 percent of the population are entitled to enjoy my swimming pool, hot tub and sit on my front porch on a warm summer evening enjoying the view of the pond?
Maybe the water from my well should have a severance tax? My corn crop? Where do I send the 5 percent of the tomatoes harvested from my garden? Philadelphia or Pittsburgh? That is where the lion’s share of a severance tax will go.
John Christopher
Carmichaels