Veto Threat Looms Over Oil Taxes Bill

uscitizen

uscitizen

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Veto Threat Looms Over Oil Taxes Bill


Feb 26, 5:57 PM (ET)

By H. JOSEF HEBERT

WASHINGTON (AP) - If Congress passes legislation to roll back nearly $18 billion in tax breaks for large oil companies, advisers to President Bush will recommend a veto, the White House said Tuesday.

The tax legislation is scheduled to come up for a vote in the House on Wednesday.

The revenues from oil companies would be used to pay for tax incentives for wind, solar and other renewable energy sources including for ethanol produced from feedstock other than corn, and tax breaks for energy efficiency programs.

A similar tax proposal passed the House last summer, but it was abandoned in the Senate where Republicans overwhelmingly opposed it.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080226/D8V29JTO0.html
 
I think it is funny that many think that doing away with a tax break is a new tax.
A tax break means that you are escaping paying a tax that others would pay.
 
Yes, they should tax them and not give them special treatment. They should use those taxes to look into alternative fuels and energy as well. Oil costs our governement just as it costs us. The War in Iraq's casualties would have been dramatically less if we weren't so reliant on oil, or it might have never came about. A lot of the deaths were during Fuel Convoys.

It would save our school systems maintenance costs to run buses. It would save on public transportation. There are plenty of reason even a libertarian like myself would agree for the government to dump some funds into alternatives.
 
cawacko said:
I'm not all that familiar with this. What was the tax originally intended for? Do you believe the government will better spend the capital than the oil companies?
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Many of the tax breaks came when oil was being arbitrarily held low. We kept oil low to boost our economic growth capacity and to crush the Soviet economy which was (and is) heavily reliant upon oil revenues. From that standpoint, we no longer should be giving them these tax breaks.

As for the second part of your question, no. A rock could do a better job spending the capital than the government.

That said, ya got to pick your fights and this isn't one the Reps want. Bush should shut the hell up and sign it.
 
DigitalDave said:
Yes, they should tax them and not give them special treatment. They should use those taxes to look into alternative fuels and energy as well. Oil costs our governement just as it costs us. The War in Iraq's casualties would have been dramatically less if we weren't so reliant on oil, or it might have never came about. A lot of the deaths were during Fuel Convoys.

It would save our school systems maintenance costs to run buses. It would save on public transportation. There are plenty of reason even a libertarian like myself would agree for the government to dump some funds into alternatives.
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If they take the money and pump it into alt energy research, that would be great. But don't forget, the oil companies are some of the largest investors in alt energy research.
 
Superfreak said:
If they take the money and pump it into alt energy research, that would be great. But don't forget, the oil companies are some of the largest investors in alt energy research.
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I know... and I bet they would benefit tremendously by brining about the next big breakthrough. I think that every dollar they put towards that reasearch should give them a break. But I'm not sure why they get $18 Billion in breaks now.
 
Using taxes to "look into" alternative fuels and energy is what got us into this mess. Remember the seventies?
The problem is competition...There isn't any. We've allowed the oil corps to avoid anti trust laws and consolidate.
Giving tax dollars to the cronies of corrupt politicians will only buy them a couple of new Yachts. It will not result in new fuels or lower your cost at the pump.
 
DigitalDave said:
I know... and I bet they would benefit tremendously by brining about the next big breakthrough. I think that every dollar they put towards that reasearch should give them a break. But I'm not sure why they get $18 Billion in breaks now.
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The reason is because they were given those breaks when we kept oil artificially low. For that reason they should be eliminated.

But I agree, it would be beneficial to have them get a break based on their investment in alt energy.... and yes, whomever comes out with the alt energy technology in an economically viable manner is going to benefit in a very big way.
 
Superfreak said:
If they take the money and pump it into alt energy research, that would be great. But don't forget, the oil companies are some of the largest investors in alt energy research.
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Do you have a source for that? And how are we defining "alt energy?"

From what I have read they are investing in alternative fuel sources, but not necessarily in renewable resources or environmentally friendly resources. For example, there is a lot of investment being made in offshore oil exploration, oil shale, tar sands, coal to liquid and the like. We can call these "alt energy" but they are shitty from an environmental perspective and the amounts flowing to these "alt energy" sources pales in comparison to renewables research.
 
WC Grouch said:
Using taxes to "look into" alternative fuels and energy is what got us into this mess. Remember the seventies?
The problem is competition...There isn't any. We've allowed the oil corps to avoid anti trust laws and consolidate.
Giving tax dollars to the cronies of corrupt politicians will only buy them a couple of new Yachts. It will not result in new fuels or lower your cost at the pump.
Click to expand...

It should be a venture that is tackled from multiple angles. Government ain't perfect in any way, but it may need to test out some breakthroughs in the military or public transportation vehicles before individuals go for it. The government can help with public trust of a technology.
 
I think most of the oil companies investments in alt energy are basically just advertising costs to them to say look how green we are.
Buying the alt energy companies allows the oil companies to control them. Perhaps to big oils benefit while bragging about how green they are now.
I recall reading about how the oil and tire companies bought out the public transportations systems back in the early days of the auto just to end competition.
 
uscitizen said:
I think most of the oil companies investments in alt energy are basically just advertising costs to them to say look how green we are.
Buying the alt energy companies allows the oil companies to control them. Perhaps to big oils benefit while bragging about how green they are now.
I recall reading about how the oil and tire companies bought out the public transportations systems back in the early days of the auto just to end competition.
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You got a point there too. Oil will benefit in the short-term by limiting new tech.
 
DigitalDave said:
You got a point there too. Oil will benefit in the short-term by limiting new tech.
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Yep it is normal business practice to get all you can out of your existing infrastructure.
for one thing most of the green stuff Chevron brags about came about by them buying another company, not something they developed.
 
cawacko said:
I'm not all that familiar with this. What was the tax originally intended for? Do you believe the government will better spend the capital than the oil companies?
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LOL. I just figured that I should go with "the will of the voters" because apparently any other response is bad...
 
Dungheap said:
Do you have a source for that? And how are we defining "alt energy?"

From what I have read they are investing in alternative fuel sources, but not necessarily in renewable resources or environmentally friendly resources. For example, there is a lot of investment being made in offshore oil exploration, oil shale, tar sands, coal to liquid and the like. We can call these "alt energy" but they are shitty from an environmental perspective and the amounts flowing to these "alt energy" sources pales in comparison to renewables research.
Click to expand...

I define alt energy as non-fossil fuel... as do most people. As for links, below is one for Shell that discusses where they are investing. You can pretty much go onto any of their sites and see not only descriptions of the projects they are working on, but also look at their financials to see their investment into alt energy.

http://www.shell.com/home/Framework?siteId=rw-br
 
I think they'll really start investing though once it becomes inevitable that Oil is on it's way out. Which may take decades.
 
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