When facts fail, associate them with “tobacco tactics”
Pennsylvania remains the largest U.S. state without a tax on natural gas production, thanks in part to a study released under the banner of the Pennsylvania State University.
The 2009 report predicted drillers would shun Pennsylvania if new taxes were imposed, and lawmakers cited it the following year when they rejected a 5 percent tax proposed by then- Governor Ed Rendell.
“As an advocacy tool, it worked,” Michael Wood, research director with the non-profit Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, said in an interview. “If people wanted to find a reason to vote against having the industry taxed in that way, that gave them reason to do it.”
What the study didn’t do was note that it was sponsored by gas drillers and led by an economist, now at the University of Wyoming, with a history of producing industry-friendly research on economic and energy issues. The researcher, Tim Considine, said his analysis was sound and not biased by industry funding.
As the U.S. enjoys a natural-gas boom from a process called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, producers are taking a page from the tobacco industry playbook: funding research at established universities that arrives at conclusions that counter concerns raised by critics.
Capital always flows to the highest return. In western Colorado we had a drilling boom until Governor Bill Ritter (D) got in bed with the greenies and imposed new drilling rule and regulations. The production companies moved their equipment to the oil fields in South Dakota and the gas fields in Pennsylvania. As a consequence we have suffered through 3 years of high unemployment and high forclosure rates. Many of our high paid O&G works have move to South Dakota. The trickle down poverty effect has closed many businesses in our area.
Prove bias first, then use the funding to explain it. But funding does not automatically equal bias. Show where the analysis is flawed, if you can. If you can’t then accept it and move on. But invoking “big tobacco” to me is the same as invoking Hitler during a debate: it means you have no valid argument and admit defeat.