Oil Extraction Tax Exemption | Video

Jennifer Joas | 1/14/2013

Oil production is one of the hot topics of this legislative session and much of the boost in our economy has come from oil extraction. Typically, oil producers will pay six and half percent in extraction taxes.

The Finance and Taxation Committee heard testimony today on a bill that would eliminate the oil extraction tax for any oil sold to refineries in North Dakota.

That doesn`t sit well with some people.

"If the private sector can`t build and refine oil and sell gas and other products at the level it is now and things like that. Then there is really a problem in this country with the economics of it," said opponent Bill Shalhoob, who is against the tax exemption.

Shalhoob says the problem refineries face is not taxation, but meeting federal environmental standards.

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