Eastern Utah’s Uinta Basin is missing out on the massive oil boom unfolding in New Mexico and Texas.
The basin’s production — which is ratcheting up, thanks to a new program of horizontal drilling — could really soar were it not for the excessive costs of doing business in Utah and the difficulty of moving this crude.
So argued a chorus of energy lobbyists appearing before a legislative panel Wednesday, imploring lawmakers to prioritize a proposal to erase the 7.5% sales tax the industry pays on equipment and materials it uses to coax hydrocarbons out of the ground.