Colin McNickle At Large

Around The Public Policy Horn

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We’ve often heard over the years — especially in those days of $3 and $4 per gallon gasoline — that the big oil companies “gouge” the public with high prices. But, truth be told, the real “gougers” are the government.

The average profit for oil companies on a gallon of gas is reported to be about .08 cents. But starting Sunday, New Year’s Day, Pennsylvania drivers will be paying 78 cents per gallon in taxes (combined federal and state taxes), thanks to an 8 cent per gallon increase in the wholesale price of gasoline in the Keystone State.

And if you don’t think retailers will pass along that cost at the pumps, you are a dreamer.

The state says it needs the money to repair the commonwealth’s highway infrastructure. The proof will be in the performance, of course. And state officials have much work to do to dispel the notion, fair or not, held by more than a few Pennsylvanians that our highways and byways get worse the more we pay in taxes to maintain them.

You can bet President Trump quickly will dispatch with a new federal Interior Department rule that, as The Wall Street Journal reported, appears to be solely designed to keep most coal reserves in the ground.

The regulation — the Stream Protection Rule set to go into effect on Jan. 19, one day before Trump takes office — would seize control of permitting from the states (which appears to be in direct violation of a 1977 federal law) and make the process of coal mining so onerous that it wouldn’t be worth the effort.

That, sadly, is what the Regulatory States of America has become in far too many instances — regulation based not on commonsense protections but on the political winds du jour.

Indeed, coal faces stiff competition from natural gas. But there remain plenty of markets for coal, particularly overseas. Yes, regulation is a necessary part of doing business. But regulation for regulation’s sake hurts everyone. Regulations designed with the express purpose of killing off an industry is punitive government at its worst.

There it goes again. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, which has a nasty habit of exceeding its legal warrant, says it will embark on a what’s been called a “statewide listening tour” in the new year.

And what might the topic be? As public broadcasting stations WITF and WHYY report, “environmental justice issues related to oil and gas development.”

Some people are upset that such development tends to be clustered in areas where poverty is relatively high and minority populations are relatively larger.

And here we thought the role of the state DEP was to protect the environment — not to engage in social and political causes.

The new year will bring higher mandatory, state-ordered minimum wages to 19 states and 23 localities, reminds Richard Berman, president of Berman and Company, a Washington, D.C., public relations firm.

And while that will be cheered by many, the sobering reality is, as Berman writes in The Washington Times, that higher wages will result in fewer entry-level jobs. And as Berman reminds, the consequences of a lost generation of starter jobs go beyond the value earned from a paycheck.

“They include the loss of valuable training opportunities that allow young employees to earn the soft skills including time management, working as part of a team and customer service,” he says.

And, Berman adds, “These are not dead-end jobs for those who want to advance. Economists find that roughly two out of three starter wage employees get a raise within their first several months on the job. They also find that those with early career work experience earn 20 percent more than their counterparts later in their careers.”

Yet again, though, a “progressive” public policy is proven to be regressive, creating fewer opportunities and hurting the very people “progressives” profess their policy will help.

Colin McNickle is a senior fellow and media specialist at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org

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Colin McNickle
Colin McNickle

Colin received his B.G.S. from Ohio University. The 40-year journalism veteran joined the Institute in October 2016. That followed a 22-year career with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 18 as director of editorial pages for Trib Total Media. Prior that, Colin had a long and varied career in media — from radio, newspapers and magazines, to United Press International and The Associated Press.

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