Obama proposes larger oil cleanup fund, tax on oil companies

[TomCADem]

Source: CNN

Venice, Louisiana (CNN) -- President Obama on Wednesday proposed a package of measures that would provide at least $58 million in additional funding for oil spill relief efforts and raise the tax that oil companies pay to maintain an emergency fund.

In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi requesting congressional approval of the package, Obama said oil giant BP -- which owns the leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico -- was responsible for all clean-up costs. In addition, Obama said, the government would seek full compensation for all damages from BP.

"We cannot allow the potentially protracted pursuit of claims to prevent us from swift action to help those harmed by this spill," Obama said in the letter.

The proposals would increase by 1 cent the current tax of 8 cents a barrel that oil companies pay into the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, and also increase the amounts that could be spent from that fund on single incidents.

Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/05/12/oil.spill.main/?hpt=C1

[AndyA]

1. Need to add: the tax cannot be passed on to consumers, it must come out of existing profits.

This kind of crap has ZERO impact on oil companies, they just pass along the cost and continue to reap the rewards. Short sighted of Obama to not realize the taxpayers--the ones already being screwed over by these companies--will ultimately pay for this.

[aquart]

2. Agreed.

I want every penny of the cost of this squeezed out of BP FIRST. Then I want them to sue Halliburton into extinction.

Frankly, we need to look into RICO seizure and dare the Supreme Court to void it.

[Abq_Sarah]

6. The cost will be passed on, regardless

I don't think there is a legal way to keep a company from passing a cost of business fee/fine/tax onto consumers.

[Chulanowa]

7. A tax on profits rather than whole income goes a long way, though

Since us paying more at the pump would generate more profit, and thus raise the amount they're taxed by.

[Plaid Adder]

3. Well, that's all well and good, but...

...what if they can't clean this up?

That's the scenario I keep coming back to. BP says they'll pay for the cleanup, even though they're not responsible. Fine. Lawsuits are surely coming for BP even as we speak. Great. The more expensive it gets to do this kind of drilling, the less excited companies will be to do more of it.

But: What if we've finally created a mess nobody can clean up? What if another offshore drilling site becomes yet another catastrophe that can't be resolved no matter HOW much money there is in the cleanup fund? Why not just say, all right, this is clearly a bad idea and we're not going to let you do it any more?

(don't answer that question. Money. Lobbying. I know.)

:scared:

The Plaid Adder

[Iliyah]

4. We here in

Southern California are already paying higher oil prices. No matter what, it always falls on us, the middle class and the poor.

[truthisfreedom]

5. The cost of oil is going to go up as a result of the spill,certainly not as a result of a 1 cent per

barrel tax increase. A barrel of oil contains 42 gallons, about 19 or 20 gallons of gas can be made from that. The one cent per barrel increase will increase the price of a gallon of gas by .05 cents. They should double it instead of increasing it by a penny.

[dencol]

10. Seize their assets.

Revoke the corporate charter and operating licenses. Sell the assets off to the highest bidder. Yes, the stockholders would lose out, but that is the risk of investing in a poorly run oil business.

[Gecko6400]

11. And what would you do

about the tens of thousands of folks who would be thrown out of work?????

[AllyCat]

8. How about we cut their subsidies, they actually PAY tax, AND we regulate them?

Regulation will prevent a share of this mess. And that is federal regulation, not the oil companies watching themselves and telling us everything is peachy keen. They have to pay their fair share of taxes at their current tax rate instead of shelters and shell games. And we stop subsidizing them so they can then bilk and poison us.

[zenprole]

9. President Payback

Here's where the oil industry's investments in Brand Obama pay off. Until it is somehow capped, the costs of this underwater oil volcano are open-ended and could easily reach into the trillions of dollars. Think about this as the laughable $75m damages cap is boosted to a minuscule $10bn. It's still nowhere close to adequate.

BP needs to be seized immediately, against the costs of a minimum of a decade of comprehensive cleanup. Executives, politicians, and other decision-makers down to the local level must be placed under legal restrictions on travel and communication pending a full investigation of how events over the last several years contributed to this nightmare.

The information about this event is being closely-guarded against widespread public outrage, which could possibly reach revolutionary levels. Here's to crossing that threshold before it's too late to matter.

[NJmaverick]

12. K & R!