Articles
New York Times: The Senate Shills for Big Oil
03/03/2008
One of the major shortcomings in last year’s admirable
energy bill was its failure to extend vital tax credits to producers of wind,
solar and other renewable fuels. This was entirely the doing of the Senate,
which caved in to the oil companies and their White House friends.
The House had approved the credits but insisted — under the
Democrats’ pay-as-you-go rules — that they be paid for by eliminating the same
amount in tax credits for oil and gas producers. Industry (which is rolling in
cash these days) howled, President Bush lofted veto threats, and the Senate
caved.
The damage was immediately apparent. New investment in
clean, non-fossil-fuel energy sources — which need the help until they become
competitive with older, dirtier energy sources — began to shrivel.
The Senate now has a chance to redeem itself. Last week, the
House approved a new $17 billion package of credits, spread over 10 years, to
encourage the development of renewable energy sources and to promote
energy-efficient buildings and appliances.
As before, the House insisted that the credits be paid for
by terminating an equivalent $17 billion in tax breaks over 10 years for oil
and gas companies. And right on schedule, Senate Republicans began complaining
that increasing industry’s taxes would discourage investment in domestic oil
and gas production.
What will it take to wake the Senate up? It should be clear
to even the most obtuse members that a country that consumes one-fifth of the
world’s oil but has only 3 percent of its reserves cannot possibly drill its
way to energy independence.
It should be equally clear that an industry whose five
biggest producers generated $145 billion in profits last year can easily
sacrifice $1.7 billion in annual tax breaks it does not need to help develop
the cleaner fuels the country does need.
If those arguments aren’t enough, we offer the Senate some
words from President Bush. In a 2005 address to the American Society of
Newspaper Editors, Mr. Bush spoke forcefully of the need for an energy strategy
that looked to the long term and emphasized conservation and renewable fuels.
Of the oil and gas industry, he said pointedly: “I will tell
you with $55 oil we don’t need incentives to the oil and gas companies to
explore. There are plenty of incentives. What we need is to put a strategy in
place that will help this country over time become less dependent.”