 Remembering that Exxon purchased Mobil a few years back for $81 billion, a piddling $5 million couldn’t matter that much to the corporate behemoth, right? Yet there they were in the Capitol Wednesday, an army of energy industry lobbyists, led by ExxonMobil’s Patrick R. Day of Holland & Hart, weeping and gnashing of teeth at the thought of a severance tax on helium – a byproduct of the natural gas production. (And natural gas revenues have certainly kept ExxonMobile in making acquisitions.) The problem goes back to a 1920 federal law on mineral leasing, which reserved helium – a valuable wartime commodity, presumably for blimps, which Rooster and other birds are not all that fond of – to ownership by the federal government. The Wyoming Supreme Court has ruled that the fed's helium can’t be taxed by Sublette County or the state. But the state constitution insists that when you “sever” a mineral resource in the state, it should be taxed.
So, on Wednesday morning, there among the sleek pinstriped lobbyist penguins sat a small band of Wyoming legislators, a clutch of trembling, disheveled dodos penned in a small hearing (yes, Rooster sometimes gets carried away with the odd avian metaphor). But these were stubborn dodos. With a little help from Attorney General Bruce Salzburg, the group had devised a bill that would NOT tax the property or its owner (the invulnerable feds), but would tax the producer (for severing the helium).
Will the energy companies sue if this bill passes? They weren’t saying, but all the legislative birds are twittering that they will. Sure, the envisioned helium tax would only cost ExxonMobil $5 million, but lawyers voices get high and squeaky when they talk about the new natural gas processing plants soon to come on line – all of which plan to make some extra pocket change by separating out the helium (which is not much used anymore for blimps – Rooster is relieved – but is useful for superconducting magnets, deep-sea diving and other industrial uses, like…balloons?). Though the room was in tears after the energy industry’s plea, the House Revenue Committee stiffened its hard heart and passed the bill. Rooster is inclined to let loose with high, squeaky, cock-a-doodle-do. And Rooster overheard – because Rooster is in a position to overhear – one of our legislators in the Back Room say: “If you just took all the money being paid to the lobbyists in that room and gave it to the state, we’d make more than the tax.” (Editor's Note: A little background on the rooster…
In recent years, a statue of a rather odd looking rooster has sometimes been seen occupying space in leadership offices in the Wyoming legislature. The rooster, in fact, has become something of a prize in the Capitol – in 2007 it was for a time “kidnapped” and turned up in the Capitol Club, and other places. Was it kidnapped? Not clear. It may be moving about on its own. Certainly, it is proving, in Wyofile, to have a voice of its own.)
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