KSLA News 12 Shreveport, Louisiana |Oil and gas industry concerned over tax incentives

Oil and gas industry concerned over tax incentives

By Fred Childers - bio | email

SHREVEPORT, LA (KSLA) - The oil and gas industry fears the boom from the Haynesville shale could be a bust for some - if tax incentives are eliminated.  "The president of the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association, Don Briggs says it's the small ones that will be hurt. "In North Louisiana the Haynesville Shale, there's not but 30 or 40 wells, but it's only the beginning, if you want to talk about the ones that would go away, we're talking about literally thousands," says Briggs.
    Just yesterday (Wednesday) U.S. treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner told the Senate Finance Committee that "We don't believe it makes sense to significantly subsidize the production and use of sources of energy like oil and gas that are dramatically going to add to our climate change problem."   
   A statement that surprised Briggs.
"There's a big argument out there about global warming, in the real world there's just as many people out there saying it's not an issue, it's a natural phenomenon," says Briggs. Congressman John Fleming who represents Northwest Louisiana took up the fight against the bill on the house floor on Wednesday.
"Our nation's oil and gas industry is not made up of the 5 or so big oil companies, instead it's several thousand independent oil and gas producers," said Fleming. 
      He believes the move would have far reaching effects. "Trillions of dollars will be lost, thousands of jobs will be lost our energy security will be severely threatened," says Congressman Fleming. 
    But the administration appears poised to dedicate more resources to alternative and renewable energy, a stance that has appears to have literally startled those in the oil and gas industry.