The Oil Industry And Congress: Beyond Greed, Beyond Belief, Beyond Redemption
The largest oil companies made $35 billion in profits in the first quarter of this year. They are on track to make a record $140 billion over the entire year. Their industry, the oil industry, receives special tax breaks of $2.1 billion a year.
In testimony before Congress this week, top executives of the largest oil companies were chided by some senators. They were told that were their industry’s tax breaks taken away, $2 billion a year less would have to be cut from health and other programs for the poor, the sick, the needy. This would still leave $138 billion in profits this year the industry might use to carry out its energy-boosting operations.
The response of these top executives? Their industry gets fewer tax breaks than some others, they said. And presumably, this being so, they should have more as a matter of equity.
This story will end next week when congress will vote on whether to take away the industry’s tax breaks. No one, absolutely no one inside or outside Washington, expects congress to do this.
There is nothing more to say about this situation. There is nothing to argue about. If the oil industry and congress believe this is the way to run this country, that these are the priorities to retain, we have reached a stage of governance and economics that is beyond greed, beyond belief, and sadly but clearly, beyond redemption.
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10 Responses to “The Oil Industry And Congress: Beyond Greed, Beyond Belief, Beyond Redemption”
I’m a little confused on all this gas price stuff. I thought that legislation was being proposed to raise the cost of oil (and coal) in order to encourage alternate energy, and that was supposed to be a good thing.
Well, now the market is doing just that, and it’s a bad thing.
The whole thing is pretty much a circus…
http://www.npr.org/2011/04/23/135655567/whats-driving-gas-prices-from-an-energy-insider
The subsidies (“tax incentives”) should have been dropped many years ago for the big guys. Small exploration and high-risk enterprises might still be justified, however a proven bad idea like the ethanol industry does not deserve a $5 billion a year subsidy and the edge of a 54 cent/gallon tax on imported ethanol.
Let’s play fair.
Dirty little secret of this admin is that they have had more to do with raising gas prices then any of the oil companies. The QE2 program has been pumping money into the market like crazy and it has helped to keep the markets going good while every were else has been hurting. It has caused a run in all the commodities making everything from bread to gas to increase in price. Take the 2 bill from them. They will just tack it on to fuel prices. They may not drill in a few borderline locations and buy a few less oil leases but it won’t hurt them. They may make a 140 bill. So? Without saying what they spent to make it that number means nothing. If they have well over a trillion dollars invested then then they should make over 100 billion. They are businesses not charities.
Not a peep from the lefties who have long been saying we have “too low” or “artificially low” fuel prices (compared to high-tax Europe), and want high taxes on fuels to force us to conserve as well as rush to adopt “alternative energy” sources (without specifying what would substitute for gasoline and Diesel fuel for motor vehicles).
[snicker]
We’re not going to encounter lunacy about “windfall profits” taxes again, are we?
[groaning]
E. Ellis wrote:
Yet, there are plenty of lefties like Krugman who not only want more (deficit) spending, but want more inflation as well.
The whole idea is just stupid. The oil industry more than any other does not need incentives to spur more growth. First, they have a virtually guaranteed market. Every barrel they pump out, they are going to sell. We consume lots and we aren’t getting less thirsty. Only drug dealers have that kind of sure fire market for their products. Second, the price of Oil has skyrocketed to the point where they are making so much more profit per barrel they actually don’t even know what to do with it all. Now, I am against a windfall tax, but they sure as hell don’t need tax breaks.
Of course, that didn’t stop a slew of GOP senators standing up this week to plead the oil companies case. They whined about how removing the tax breaks will raise prices, cost jobs, and every other lie that sounded good but is patently untrue for an industry that is that stable and that profitable. Share prices would maybe, MAYBE, take a slight hit if the perceived value was affected, but the overall productivity and profitability of the industry would remain very healthy and in no need of artificial corporate welfare programs. Sickening.
Then there’s Obama: “Time to drill more.” What will the far Left say?
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/54969.html
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2011/0514/Obama-says-Drill-baby-drill.-Will-new-oil-policy-ease-gas-prices
Compounding the problem, is the fact that the oil industry actually is encouraged, in a profit way, to buy oil at vastly increased prices from speculators. They actually make MORE money per dollar spent off speculators price jacked oil then on cheaper oil. So increasing production doesn’t actually help, they will allow the speculators to buy it then buy from them.
http://www.moderatebias.com/2011/05/price-of-oil.html