CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

In the most obvious example: Pennsylvania and New York have no severance tax on oil and gas. Ohio has a tiny one that covers only the cost of regulating the industry.

By contrast, all veteran energy states tax their energy resources heavily and use the money to keep other taxes low.

Texas charges a 7.5 percent severance tax on natural gas and has no income tax. Oklahoma charges 7.1 percent. Alaska charges 25 percent to 50 percent. It has no sales or income tax, writes checks to residents every October ($1,174 per person last year) and has stashed away $41 billion for the future by taxing energy. North Dakota, now enjoying a shale oil boom, charges 5 percent to 6.5 percent.

Among the new boom states, only West Virginia has a substantial tax -- an old natural resources levy, a little above 5 percent, that applies to oil, gas and coal.

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