H. B. 3131

         (By Delegate Manypenny)

         [Introduced February 15, 2011; referred to the

Committee on Energy, Industry and Labor, Economic Development and Small Business then Finance.]

A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated §11-13A-3f, relating to imposing a ten-year moratorium on severance taxes on the extracting and recovering material from refuse, slurry, gob piles or other sources of waste coal to produce energy.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

    That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated §11-13A-3f, to read as follows:

ARTICLE 13A. SEVERANCE AND BUSINESS PRIVILEGE TAX ACT.

§11-13A-3f. Ten-year moratorium of tax on privilege of extracting and recovering material from refuse, slurry, gob piles or other sources of waste coal to produce energy.

(a) The Legislature hereby finds and declares the following:

    (1) That some mining operations in this state process coal to create a saleable clean coal product;

    (2) That the by-product, waste or residue created from processing coal is commonly deposited in what are known as slurry, refuse or gob piles;

    (3) That, there should be an incentive for businesses to develop and implement technologies and other factors, the material contained in slurry ponds, refuse or gob piles located in this state to be recovered and further processed to produce saleable energy; and

    (4) That, under the existing laws of this state, energy produced from processing material contained in refuse, gob piles, slurry ponds, pond fines or other sources of waste coal would be subject to the annual privilege tax imposed on the severance of coal pursuant to sections three and three-e of this article and the minimum severance tax imposed by section three, article twelve-b of this chapter.

    Based on the findings in this subsection, the Legislature concludes that an incentive to the extracting and recovering material contained in refuse, gob piles and other sources of waste coal located in this state and subsequently processing, washing and preparing this material to produce energy should be implemented to encourage the production of energy from refuse or gob piles located in this state.

    (b) Moratorium of taxes. -– Notwithstanding any other provision of this code to the contrary, for tax years 2011 through and including 2020, no severance tax may be imposed upon any business or person for the privilege of engaging or continuing within this state in the business of extracting and recovering material from a slurry pond, a refuse, gob pile or other sources of waste coal and subsequently processing, washing and preparing this extracted or recovered material to produce energy for sale, profit or commercial use, including, but not limited to: (i) The annual privilege tax imposed on the severance of coal imposed by sections three and three-e of this article; (ii) the additional tax on severance, extraction and production of coal imposed by section six of this article; and (iii) the minimum severance tax imposed by section three, article twelve-b of this chapter.

    NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to impose a ten-year moratorium on severance taxes on the extraction and recovery of material from refuse, slurry, gob piles or other sources of waste coal to produce energy.

    This section is new; therefore, it has been completely underscored.