Big Oil's Capitol Hill Surge
This week, the American Petroleum Industry is flying in oil and natural gas workers from six states for meetings on Capitol Hill.
The API sponsored meetings come on the heels of more than 100 meetings held last week between the Independent Petroleum Association of America and lawmakers. Sixty IPAA members flew to Washington from Texas, Louisiana and other states to “educate” lawmakers about the tax deductions that Obama has targeted for elimination.
API will beat the same drum.
The Obama Administration is seeking to repeal subsidies that would be valued at $3.6 billion for oil and gas companies in 2012. In a decade, the administration estimates the repeal would yield about $46 billion.
Recovering $46 billion from an industry whose top five multi-national companies brought home nearly $1 trillion in profits over the last ten years, sounds pretty good. But, API will likely leverage rising oil prices to challenge the the tax repeal.
However, according to a congressional report released last month,
“Since extracting oil even in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico can be done for as little as $10 per barrel, and oil is trading near $100 a barrel, revoking the tax subsidies enjoyed by the oil industry will not affect prices in a global market or prices at the pump for consumers, the report says.”
At a time when hard working Americans are being asked to shoulder the consequences of tremendous budget cuts, Big Oil’s surge to save its federal handouts should be met with slammed doors.