PRINTER'S NO. 3788
No. 563 Session of 2002
INTRODUCED BY HUTCHINSON, FICHTER, READSHAW, M. BAKER, STERN,
McILHATTAN, MANN, BENNINGHOFF, LESCOVITZ, JAMES, KELLER,
COLEMAN, HENNESSEY, CLYMER, S. H. SMITH, DALEY, YOUNGBLOOD,
WASHINGTON, CAPPELLI, SHANER, HARHART, PALLONE, WILT, FEESE,
CREIGHTON, PICKETT, BARD, McCALL AND TURZAI, APRIL 30, 2002
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON RULES, APRIL 30, 2002
A RESOLUTION
1 Memorializing the Congress of the United States to extend the
2 tax credit established in section 29 of the Internal Revenue
3 Code of 1986 for production of certain nonconventional fuels
4 including gas from coal seams.
5 WHEREAS, Natural gas provides 25% of the energy consumed in
6 the United States, including 16% of electricity generation; and
7 WHEREAS, Pennsylvania's natural gas industry has the ability
8 to provide natural gas for domestic energy needs; and
9 WHEREAS, Natural gas demand has increased at escalating rates
10 while production has just begun to increase after low prices
11 drove producers out of business and severely curtailed drilling
12 in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; and
13 WHEREAS, In 1999, 4.87 trillion cubic feet of domestic
14 natural gas came from nonconventional resources; and
15 WHEREAS, This represents 26% of the natural gas produced in
16 the lower 48 states; and
17 WHEREAS, The Congress of the United States and the
1 President's administration will be seeking solutions to the
2 natural gas supply tightening which is driving natural gas to
3 record levels for consumers; and
4 WHEREAS, The tax credit set forth in section 29 of the
5 Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (Public Law 99-514, 26 U.S.C. § 31
6 et seq.) was established in 1980 to encourage domestic
7 production from deposits that are unusually difficult and
8 expensive to develop and is set to expire after December 31,
9 2002; and
10 WHEREAS, If the tax credit is allowed to expire, producers
11 will shut in wells and halt drilling because the economic return
12 on wells is too uncertain; therefore be it
13 RESOLVED, That the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of
14 Pennsylvania recognize the challenges facing domestic natural
15 gas production and recommend that the President of the United
16 States and the Congress, in consultation with the states, adopt
17 without delay measures which will create incentives for the
18 development of conventional and nonconventional sources of
19 domestic natural gas and oil through the extension of existing
20 programs and the development of new incentives including, but
21 not limited to, the extension of the tax credit set forth in
22 section 29 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 for the
23 production of oil and gas from unconventional sources; and be it
24 further
25 RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be transmitted to
26 the President of the United States, to the presiding officers of
27 each house of Congress and to each member of Congress from
28 Pennsylvania.
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