Members of two key Pennsylvania Senate committees seemed to waver in their support for a severance tax on oil and natural gas production during a joint hearing about the proposal on Monday, with many lauding the industry for its accomplishments in the state.

For years, both Republican- and Democratic- controlled legislatures have failed to agree on the state severance tax, choosing instead to pass an impact fee in 2012, which charges a flat rate for each unconventional well in the state regardless of production (see Shale Daily, Jan. 28, 2014; Feb. 15, 2012). On Monday, more than 10 years after Range Resources Corp. drilled the first Marcellus Shale well in the state and more than eight years after development began in earnest, lawmakers were back at the drawing board to hear a spate of testimony from those on both sides of the severance tax debate.

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