Kerry & Rep. Hinchey Re-Introduce Measure to Repeal More Than $25 Billion in Tax Breaks for BIG Oil

[kerrygoddess]

John Kerry and Rep. Hinchey Re-Introduce Measure to Repeal More Than $25 Billion in Wasteful Tax Breaks & Subsidies for Oil Companies

January 19th, 2007 @ 6:04 pm

Yesterday, the House Democrats passed their energy package targeting royalty breaks for big oil — the Clean Energy Act of 2007 (H-6) — by a vote of 264 to 163, “with many Republicans joining a bloc of Democrats.”

Passage came despite opposition from the oil industry and the Bush administration, which said the bill singled out the companies for higher taxes and could increase the country’s dependence on foreign oil.

The bill will rescind $7.6 billion in tax breaks for oil drillers that Congress passed in 2004 and 2005 and will add $6.3 billion in royalties from companies that pump oil and gas in publicly owned waters of the Gulf of Mexico and off Alaska.

Today, following up on the House victory, Senator John Kerry (D-Mass) and Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) re-introduced the Energy Fairness for America Act, which would repeal at least $25 billion in tax breaks and subsidies for oil and gas companies. The Energy Fairness for America Act is “part of a broader effort on behalf of Kerry, Hinchey, and other Democrats to undo giveaways to oil giants.”

Kerry and Hinchey said the bill would save taxpayer funds and vowed to work aggressively to get the legislation approved this year.

“With oil companies raking in huge, record-breaking profits, there is no way the U.S. government should be giving away these massive tax breaks at the expense of American families,” Kerry said. “This legislation would go a long way to restoring the public confidence in our government and would help us recoup money that would otherwise go out the window.”

MORE & LINKS - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=5152

[babylonsister]

1. Who can argue this? Big K & N, and thanks to the good guys! nt

[CrazyOrangeCat]

2. That's some of the best news yet.

Kerry always did care about the average working person.

Thanks!

[bleever]

3. I don't care if John Kerry becomes president, in this respect:

He has proven himself a true statesman, and a true patriot, many times over.

May he always feel the pride that he deserves for his service to the idea of America.

[karynnj]

4. What a beautiful comment

In truth, I thik America needs John Kerry, more than John Kerry needs America. Whether or not he becomes President, he will have done more good than many of them, usually with people of lesser character holding him back.

Imagine if the Senate had enough people with his honesty and integrity when he wanted the BCCI investigations to continue. It hurts to read that the nuber 1 issue he listed was further investigation of how BCCI financed the Pakistan bomb and how they evaded detection of the non-proliferation rules. Pakistan's bomb was developed by A.Q. Khan and this was 1992 - imagine what they could have found if they pursued this. Maybe nothing. Maybe detected the A.Q. Khan network in its infancy. (At any rate he got some OBL millions frozen when the bank closed.)

Run John Run!

[ohtransplant]

6. I strongly agree.

"He has proven himself a true statesman, and a true patriot, many times over.

May he always feel the pride that he deserves for his service to the idea of America."

"America needs John Kerry..."

[northofdenali]

5. When their net PROFITS are in the multiple-billions,

tax breaks for these greedy bastards is just too much.

Better believe I'll support this. Exxon hasn't even bothered to pay up for the Valdez disaster. I haven't bought one drop of Exxon Mobil gas since 1989.

[wisteria]

7. Really good news. n/t

[politicasista]

8. K&R

For Senator Kerry, Congressman Hinchey, and the little people. :kick: