It may give plenty in the form of gas production for gas companies, but we know it will give nothing back to Arkansas in the form of severance tax, because there’s effectively none on natural gas production in Arkansas. (The rate is so low it hardly counts.) But check out Arkansas Business, which has a lengthy examination by Nate Hinkel of growing concerns about potential environmental damage from the water-intensive exploration techniques necessary to exploit these gas deposits. It will help you understand why some of the major players in the gas find tried to jam through anti-lawsuit legislation during the last legislative session. This is an issue worth watching. If there’s to be no severance tax, we darn sure don’t want gas exploration to be an overall negative for the state thanks to environmental damage.

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