As oil-price fever gripped Congress this week, both political parties have said they are ready to revoke oil and gas incentives that were passed as recently as eight months ago.
Top Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee have asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the tax returns for the nation’s 15 biggest oil and gas companies. They are citing excessive pay deals for senior executives. Ironically this means that old-raptor Lee Raymond’s pay-off from Exxon may have been too much for even the Republicans to stomach.
Leading Republicans are now asking for $2 billion in tax breaks Congress passed as part of the energy bill last August to be repealed. Leading Democrats are pushing for tax breaks over $10 billion to be turned over.
“Nobody has any sympathy for oil companies on Capitol Hill right now,” Representative Jack Kingston, Republican of Georgia and vice chairman of the House Republican Conference. “You talk to someone driving to work in an F-150 pickup and paying $75 to fill up his tank, and everybody’s on his side.”
According to the New York Times both political “parties jockeyed for political advantage even as they were grasping for ideas.” Well here is the first idea: separate oil from state. And the second one: take every tax incentive given to the nuclear and fossil fuel industry over the last five years and give it to the renewable energy industry as tax breaks. See what happens then.
This stuff isn’t rocket science – you know it makes sense.