Senate Revenue Committee OKs sales-tax exemption for oil gathering-line power with amendment

The Senate Revenue Committee on an apparent voice-and-roll call vote advanced House Bill 311 on a 4–1 tally, clearing language to restore a sales-tax exemption for electricity used to move oil through surface gathering lines and inserting a clarifying word to preserve existing exemptions for major pipelines.

At issue is whether the longstanding exemption that applied to interstate and intrastate transmission pipelines should also apply to smaller gathering lines that transport crude from well sites to larger collection or delivery points. Representative Wach, the bill sponsor, told the committee the bill "just brings it back for the gathering lines" after a prior statutory interpretation and subsequent rulemaking removed that treatment.

The bill would amend the sales-tax exemption in W.S. 39-15-105 to add a pipeline definition and a phrase clarifying coverage "regardless of the ownership of the transportation of the transported tangible personal property." Brenda Henson, director of the Department of Revenue, said the department had previously…