Editor's note: This post originally appeared at The National Journal. If you agree with Jackie, go to the article and click “agree”!
For decades, the oil and gas industry has benefited from a long list of financial boons totaling billions of dollars each year. In an economy where we have to make tough choices about continuing important programs – whether its paying down the debt, protecting social security or providing for a national defense – we simply can’t keep letting Big Oil, possibly the biggest player in our economy, off the hook. They should have to pay taxes just like we do.
The industry is quibbling over semantic arguments about whether a tax break is a subsidy, or whether they are being singled out. In fact, the President has not singled the oil industry out. Many of the President’s proposed changes are economy-wide, and those that aren’t pertain to oil and gas industry activities that simply don’t apply to other industries. In fact, it’s the petroleum industry that has singled itself out by building a network of tax loopholes, and then gaming them in a way that allows benefits that few, if any, other industries could even imagine. And whether the funds come in a check after taxes, or as a break on taxes, the result is the same. More money in the oil industry’s pockets and less funds in the Treasury.
Jackie Savitz is Oceana's Senior Campaign Director for Pollution Programs. This post originally appeared at the Huffington Post.
Remember that evil offshore oil deposit that went out of control last summer, blew up a drilling rig and then spewed oil and gas into the gulf of Mexico for months until the government forced the oil companies to finally stop it? Well, surprise! It turns out it wasn't the oil deposit that was out of control, it was the drilling companies. And the National Oil Spill Commission report puts it all on the table.
Unfortunately, the Commission's recommendations don't fit its findings. Why after documenting gory detail of corporate mismanagement, missteps, miscalculations and mistakes that paint a picture reminiscent of a Three Stooges episode, would your recommendations look like they were made after a run of the mill oil leak?