Senator offers amendment to remove majors' tax breaks

March 14, 2008
A US senator introduced an amendment to the 2009 budget bill that would shift financial incentives from major oil producers to cellulosic ethanol producers and purchasers of plug-in electric drive vehicles.

Nick Snow
Washington Editor

WASHINGTON, DC, Mar. 14 -- US Sen. Susan F. Collins (R-Me.) introduced an amendment to the fiscal 2009 budget bill that would shift financial incentives from major oil and gas producers to cellulosic ethanol producers and purchasers of plug-in electric drive vehicles. Her measure also would provide consumers a $500 tax credit to replace their wood stoves with cleaner-burning models.

The amendment, which is cosponsored by Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), is similar to one that Collins introduced in 2007.

"With net profits of a single oil company reaching almost $10 billion in a single quarter, we should not expect taxpayers struggling to pay their bills to subsidize the oil and gas industry," Collins said on Mar. 13. "We should take back these oil and gas subsidies, which the oil companies themselves admitted they do not need, and instead address the long-term challenge of reducing our reliance on imported oil."

The American Petroleum Institute criticized the amendment. "The bill would do nothing to alleviate the tight global crude oil supply-demand balance that contributes to high prices. Rather than encouraging new domestic oil and natural gas production, Sen. Collins's proposal would further reduce our energy security by diverting money that could otherwise be used to make the substantial investments required to increase domestic oil and gas production," it said in a statement.

Collins's amendment follows the House's Feb. 27 passage, by 236 to 182 votes, of a bill that would shift $18 billion of tax breaks from major oil companies to alternative and renewable energy projects.

Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].