House passes bill to rescind tax breaks for oil companies
It’s about time. As reported in the NYT:
The House voted this evening to rescind $14 billion worth of tax breaks and subsidies for oil drillers and channel the money into a fund that would finance renewable energy projects and new technologies for conserving energy.
Despite opposition from the oil industry and the Bush administration, which contended that the bill would unfairly single out oil companies for higher taxes and could increase the nation’s dependence on foreign oil, the measure passed, 264 to 163, with overwhelming support from Democrats and a considerable number of Republicans as well.
There is no long-term promise for energy independence by drilling for the dwindling reserves of petroleum. Also see here.
On the other hand, there are numerous approaches for immediately saving energy through conservation and through alternative energy sources. For instance, see here, here, and here.
I’m amazed that people in the Bush Administration can say with a straight face that tax breaks for Big Oil will reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil. Exactly how does that happen? Foreign oil is a huge percentage of the oil America consumes; therefore, the only way to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil is to reduce America’s dependence on oil. Bush has opposed every effort to do that, claiming it would hurt economic growth. Thus, while Bush talks about reducing America’s dependence, his actions tell the opposite story. Like any drug dealer, Bush wants the initial price low, so more people will get hooked. Once they’re hooked, then jack up the price periodically to drain their wallets. Not for very long, though, or else people might find ways to avoid the higher prices. No, just soak them long enough to make obscene profits, then drop the price back down so your customers are thrilled to be paying “less” and will therefore buy even more of your product. So, sales go up and Big Oil makes another fat profit.