TOP 100 NEWS SITES
| |||
|
| |||
| |||
|
| |||
| China-Bashing Gains Bipartisan Support Candidates across the political spectrum are seizing on anxieties about China's growing economic might to pummel each other on trade, outsourcing and the deficit. online.wsj.com |
nsylvania Republican promises tax break for natural gas industry | Suzanne Goldenberg Tom Corbett, the frontrunner in the Pennsylvania governor's race, says he will block moves to impose drilling tax on gas companiesPennsylvania is sitting on a natural gas bonanza that could power America for a decade, but is the state about to pass up a chance to cash in?It looks that way. Tom Corbett, a Republican who is well ahead in the race for governor, says he will undo a Democratic initiative to impose a drilling tax on natural gas industry. That would be a boon for an industry that is on the verge of a boom in Pennsylvania - and which has faced criticism for a drilling technique in which water is pumped at high pressure into the rock to flush out the natural gas.Pennsylvania is one of the most fiercely contested battlegrounds in the mid-term elections. The ground rules for tapping into all that natural gas could well be decided in these elections. This could, in theory, be the moment to impose far more rigorous regulations than in mining or offshore oil drilling. Corbett, who buckled under pressure from Tea Party activists earlier this year and issued a no-new-taxes pledge, updated his website last week to oppose a tax on drilling. His campaign is running television and radio ads touting his opposition to the drilling tax.The ads have outraged environmental and citizen's groups who say Corbett would effectively let industry help itself for free to the natural gas. They also point out that it would deny the state a cushion against claims from farmers and other landowners whose water has been contaminated by drilling.Corbett's Democratic opponent, Dan Onorato, has said he would use the proceeds of a drilling tax for environmental protections.There are also concerns Corbett would roll back environment and safety regulations, and allow industry more latitude to police itself. State authorities are in the process of writing environmental regulations for the natural gas industry. Pennsylvania's current governor, the Democrat Ed Rendell, supports a drilling tax, and the state house of representatives voted 104-4 for a tax. Pennsylvania lies on a formation called the Marcellus Shale, believed to contain enough natural gas to power all of America for a decade. It is the only state with major natural gas reserves not to impose a tax on drilling. Oil and gas companies expect to drill 5,000 new wells in Pennsylvania by the end of this year, boring horizontally through the rock and pumping water in at high pressure to flush out the natural gas.Oil and gas companiesUS midterm elections 2010PennsylvaniaMiningGasGasSuzanne Goldenbergguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
ICC to proceed with Bemba trial The International Criminal Court agrees to pursue the war crimes trial of DR Congo's former Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba, dismissing an appeal. bbc.co.uk |
Afghan Aid Groups Plan to Leave Companies and aid organizations implementing hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S.-funded projects here say they are preparing to leave Afghanistan unless Hamid Karzai amends a decree that outlaws their private security protection. online.wsj.com |
Leaked cables 'attack on world' US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton denounces the leak of classified diplomatic cables as an "attack on the international community". bbc.co.uk |