Government subsidies for big oil come in many shapes and sizes: reduced corporate income taxes; lower than average sales tax for gasoline; government funding of programs that benefit primarily oil industry and motorists; and the “hidden” environmental costs caused by the consumption of fossil fuels. Billions of dollars go from the taxpayers indirectly through these subsidies, despite the fact that Exxon is making more than $75,000 a minute around the clock. In effect, these subsidies have meant that the American people have been paying for gas twice: at the pump and on April 15.
But these subsidies have led to secondary effects
The US House has tried three times to correct these subsidies but they have failed thus far, even though, according to the Washington Post, the rescinded tax breaks would amount to less than 2 percent of the profits of the five biggest oil companies and would amount to about a penny a gallon in costs to the consumer. The bill would instead move these subsidies to the clean energy industry, boosting efforts to reduce our dependence on oil, fight global warming, and stimulate the green economy. But President Bush and the top oil companies are fighting to defeat the measure in the Senate.
Tomorrow, in response to the continued pressure from oil companies to kill the House’s bill, Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, has subpoenaed executives from the top oil companies in the world to answer to the American people. “The top five oil companies made record profits last year, and yet are continuing to hold onto tax breaks that could be used to advance the clean fuels of the future. Americans are not going to find the answers at the bottom of a gas tank, so we will seek to bring the CEOs of these companies to Congress and to the American people,” said Markey.
The record profits announced by Exxon Mobil have helped solidify the public’s fed-upness. From Fox Business:
Exxon’s $40.6 billion annual profit and Chevron’s $17.1 billon come at the cost of an economy tipping into recession. While Exxon makes the largest corporate profit by any corporation, ever, families pay $60 and more for a gas station fill-up and Northeasterners are shelling out more than $2,000 on average for heating oil.
“The 2007 profit of just the three U.S.-based major oil companies comes to $70 billon, even as the federal government is about to pay out $100 billion-plus for economic stimulus payments to families,” said Judy Dugan, research director of the nonprofit, nonpartisan FTCR. “Yet Americans are deeper in consumer debt than ever in large part for high energy costs. If the stimulus mainly pays credit card debt racked up at the gas station, it won’t stimulate anything.”
What we need is increased spending on the solutions for climate change. Public transportation and higher motor vehicle efficiency standards, renewable energy standards and smart electricity grids, green collar job training and transition assistance for affected communities
