Oil Producers Bullied

front page mag. ^ | 11/23/10 | Tait Trussell

[Nachum]

Department of Interior officials seem to take sadistic pleasure in badgering oil companies. The latest example involves a new agency created to levy untold millions of dollars in fines if companies don’t kowtow to the new bureaucracy. The agency’s head gave the tasteless warning: “If they cut corners they could end up paying enough to quickly take care of the federal deficit.”

The oil industry now pays $37 million a day in royalties. That’s over $13 billion a year for our near empty U.S. Treasury and other state and special accounts. The comment about collecting royalties enough to pay off the federal deficit might have been said in jest. But petroleum officials aren’t laughing. Allison Nyholm, a royalty expert and policy adviser at the American Petroleum Institute told me: “We want a positive approach, not an adversarial process. There’s a lot of discretion in how fines are imposed. It’s really in the best interest of the companies to expedite payments.”

[Nachum]

The list, ping

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[Sequoyah101]

Nobody says anything they aren’t thinking. There is no such thing as a casual comment or quip.

What is going on in this administration and the DOI is punishment of an entire industry upon a event of opportunity created by a bunch of idiot amateurs at BP.

No level of regulation can fix stupid (what BP did) and the industry can’t fight ignorance in authority.

[mountn man]

That’s over $13 billion a year for our near empty U.S. Treasury and other state and special accounts.

With a debt of $13.7 TRILLION and a $1.6 TRILLION deficit the only thing in the treasury are vast IOU's.

[CincyRichieRich]

I’m even pissed at Republicans...who is standing up for these companies and the states with the employees??? No drilling??? Why isn’t there a SCOTUS lawsuit at this point???

Bull crap!

[BOBTHENAILER]

bump for later read

[HiTech RedNeck]

The oil producers need to get together with the chicken producers to face the Obammians... tar and feathers, dig? ...

[epithermal]

“Oil Industry Taxes: A Cash Cow for Government”

http://www.taxfoundation.org/files/sr183.pdf

“Indeed, since 1981, when the failed windfall profits tax was first enacted, federal, state, and local governments in the U.S. have collected more in taxes from the oil industry than the industry has earned in actual profits for its shareholders. For example, after adjusting for inflation, the combined net earnings (net of taxes and expenses) for the largest petroleum companies between 1981 and 2008 totaled $1.4 trillion. By contrast, the total amount of taxes collected by U.S. governments from the oil companies topped $1.95 trillion, roughly 40 percent more than the industry’s combined profits. Tax collections exceeded company profits in 23 of the 27 years surveyed.”