Wyoming gas revenues down 74% in 'new reality'

As leaders scramble to prop up the state’s troubled coal industry, a “new reality” threatens from another key sector: Declining natural gas production has cut Wyoming’s annual gas tax income 74% in 12 years.

In its best performing year in the last two decades — 2006 — natural gas generated upwards of 3.5 times more mineral severance taxes for Wyoming than coal, according to calculations from state revenue forecasters’ figures. The $669.5 million in taxes that year also far outpaced mineral severance taxes generated by crude oil.

Although experts say it’s unfair to compare the coalbed-methane boom of the mid-2000s to today’s energy landscape, they are predicting a continuing decline in natural gas revenues. When coupled with the slumping coal industry, the loss of natural gas revenue is creating a “new reality,” Sen. Cale Case (R-Lander) said recently.

“When I began serving in the Legislature, we believed coal would last 200 years,” Case said in a statement as Gov. Mark Gordon announced a planning effort to better report about Wyoming’s energy future. But annual mineral severance tax revenue from coal in 2019 will be down 38% from its zenith in 2011, according to WyoFile calculations from figures provided by state revenue forecasters.

Read more: https://www.wyofile.com/wyo-gas-revenues-down-74-in-new-reality/