Tom Wolf and the Democrats’ natural gas extraction tax will only be paid by your neighbor, the leaseholder and you. The gas company will always pass the extraction tax on to consumers.

Additional taxes on natural gas revenue will only feed Pennsylvania’s corrupt union labor complex. Pennsylvania does not need leadership that will tax first and ask questions later as business leaves. Pennsylvania needs leaders who know why George Mitchell, the father of fracking, was this generation’s Henry Ford. We need leaders who will make the extraction of methane and other natural gases a war effort against the evils of high energy prices and a diminished electrical grid. We need leaders who will hold gas producers accountable with sound uniform standards.

Pennsylvanians should be thanking Heaven every day for making Pennsylvania the methane capital of the century. And for the ever-improving technology to safely extract and deliver it. The story of all natural methane recovery and George Mitchell is an American revolution that reads like budding science fiction.

Cynicism toward methane exports, the integrity of the gas industry, and those charged with its regulation will not solve the problems of poor roads and potential environmental disasters. We need state and local leaders to get us out of our own way and get the fracking over with as quickly and safely as possible so our species can continue with heat and light affordably.

The key to prosperity is cheap energy. The key to energy freedom is leadership that will manage the risks without enabling a self-serving and dominant status quo.