American Oil and Gas Reporter - October 2019 - 119

ConventionCoverage: Petroleum Association of Wyoming
vironmental Policy Act. Such reviews
formerly took more than 200 days, but
now occur in slightly more than 20 days,
he boasted.

Wyoming Senate President Drew Perkins,
R-Cheyenne, extols the oil and gas industry's economic impact on the state
during the Petroleum Association of
Wyoming's annual convention held Aug.
19-20 in Cheyenne.

more energy development, create more
revenue for state and local governments,
and have thriving wildlife populations.
These are Wyoming core values."
Casey Hammond, principal deputy assistant secretary of land and minerals
management at the U.S. Department of
the Interior, recalled the early days of the
Trump administration and the work he
and his colleagues did to remove duplicative regulations that affected oil and
gas operations on public lands in Wyoming
and throughout the West.
DOI's goal is to allow the industry to
operate with appropriate regulation, but
without unnecessary duplication, he said,
pointing to the contribution PAW members
have made to the country's emerging energy independence.
"Considering where we are today, it
is probable we will never see a future in
which your children go to war for oil and
energy," Hammond allowed. "We can
achieve that . . . thanks largely to your
dedication and innovation."
After Donald Trump was elected president, new Interior Department leadership
instructed bureaus to begin evaluating how
proposed regulations affected industry,
Hammond recalled. He said the department
also discontinued work on new regulations
in areas such as hydraulic fracturing, where
states regulated the process already.
The DOI under President Trump is
committed to collaborating with state and
local officials, Hammond said, adding
that changes were afoot to reduce the
amount of time allowed to review assessments required by the National En-

Wyoming State Budget
During PAW's morning break-out sessions, panelists discussed building and training an oil and gas workforce, and industry
technical challenges such flaring and maximizing oil and gas production efficiency.
At a session on hot-button issues in
the Wyoming Legislature, three state lawmakers reviewed their work in the interim
to deal with a structural budget shortfall
for the upcoming biennium.
House Revenue Committee Chairman
Dan Zwonitzer, R-Cheyenne, said lawmakers were considering additional taxes
on tobacco, the possibility of additional
levies on gasoline and diesel, and imposing
a corporate income tax. There also has
been talk of taxes on wind and solar
energy, he said.
This year's HB 220 called for a 7%
income tax on corporate retail and food
services, but a number of lawmakers disliked singling out two segments, he said.
"I think it is very likely we will see a
lot of these bills survive in the interim and
get to the legislature in 2020," Zwonitzer
predicted. "You may see a 3-cent fuel tax
increase; you may see a corporate income
tax in some way, shape or form."
House Minerals Committee Vice Chairman Don Burkhart, R-Rawlins, predicted

The Trump administration wants to properly regulate the oil and gas industry
without being unnecessarily duplicative,
U.S. Department of the Interior Principal
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Land and
Minerals Management Casey Hammond
tells the Petroleum Association of
Wyoming.

additional fuel and tobacco taxes had the
best chance of passing from among the
additional levies being discussed.
State Senator Brian Boner, R-Douglas,
who chairs the Select Federal Natural
Resources Committee, said state agencies
had cut spending as much as they could
without causing operational pain. Remaining revenue sources, including oil
and gas taxes and investments, are volatile,
he said.
"I guess the fundamental disagreement
we are having, and the discussion now, is

Discussing the Wyoming Legislature during the Petroleum Association of Wyoming's
annual meeting in August are, from left, House Minerals Committee Vice Chairman Don
Burkhart, R-Rawlins; state Senator Brian Boner, R-Douglas, who chairs the Select Federal
Natural Resources Committee; and House Revenue Committee Chairman Dan Zwonitzer,
R-Cheyenne.

OCTOBER 2019 119

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