Over a decade ago, Pennsylvania became the nation’s second-largest natural gas producer in the U.S. and still is — behind only Texas. In 2024, gas production approached 7.5 trillion cubic feet. Yet Pennsylvania is the only major gas-producing state that lets companies drill for gas without paying tax that rise as more gas is taken out of the ground.
This brief finds that Pennsylvania is losing billions of dollars in potential revenue because it does not have a natural gas severance tax like West Virginia’s or Texas’s.