Posted on 09/19/2011 10:24:14 AM PDT by jazusamo
President Obama is reviving his battle to kill oil-and-gas industry tax breaks and seeking billions of dollars in other energy-related revenues as part of his wider deficit-cutting and jobs proposals .
The White House on Monday sent Congress a plan to pay for Obama’s $447 billion “American Jobs Act” and also cut the deficit by over $3 trillion in 10 years.
Several of Obama’s energy tax proposals have sputtered in the past amid resistance from Republicans and oil-state Democrats. But they are part of a White House effort to sharpen the contrast between the president and Republicans over raising new revenues to curb the deficit.
Oil-and-gas taxes have been a political battleground on Capitol Hill, with liberal Democrats calling for the speedy elimination of the tax breaks and Republicans and oil-state Democrats blasting the effort.
The proposal faces an uphill battle on the supercommittee, which is charged with finding $1.5 trillion in deficit cuts by Thanksgiving. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said last week that the supercommittee should not endorse proposals that result in tax increases.
“Tax increases, however, are not a viable option for the joint committee,” Boehner said during speech at the Economic Club of Washington. “It’s a very simple equation. Tax increases destroy jobs. And the joint committee is a jobs committee. Its mission is to reduce the deficit that is threatening job creation in our country.”
The plan also targets tax credits and deductions for the coal industry, a proposal the White House said would save $2 billion over the next decade.
In addition, Obama’s plan outlines proposals that would result in $1.6 billion in savings over the next decade at the Interior Department, according to the White House.
These proposals include imposing a $4-per-acre fee on all non-producing onshore and offshore federal oil and gas leases. The administration has advocated for the proposal, often called “use it or lose it,” for months.
Obama’s plan drew immediate attacks from the Institute for Energy Research, an industry-backed group, which criticized “discriminatory” taxes on oil-and-gas companies.
“After looking at the President’s relentless attacks on domestic energy production, it’s easy to see why the economy continues to struggle,” said Tom Pyle, the group’s president.
The plan would also reinstate lapsed taxes that fund the Superfund hazardous waste cleanup program, raising an estimated $18.7 billion over a decade.
This would include a 9.7 cents-per-barrel tax on crude oil and petroleum product imports; and an excise tax on hazardous chemicals, among other provisions.
Another oil-related measure: The plan calls for eliminating ultra-deepwater oil-and-gas research and development program established by a 2005 energy law.
“These R&D activities have historically funded development of technologies that can be commercialized quickly, and are thus activities which should instead be funded by the companies that benefit from the projects,” the plan says.
Elsewhere, it would reauthorize fees on utilities to pay for the cleaning and remediation of federal uranium enrichment plants, raise $740 million by increasing fees on pesticide manufacturers, and raise more money from the mining industry for cleaning abandoned mine lands, among other proposals.
The man’s working against us Americans in every step he makes.
0 promised higher energy and food prices ?
Who suffers the most ?
Sometimes Keynesians find more government spending isn't enough to create jobs by itself so they throw in an increase in fuel costs, just to be sure...
Taxes = Savings according to Obama’s excuse for a brain.
When you deny legitimate costs in doing business for the oil companies, the next step is to do so for your local plumber- carpenter-doctor-whatever.
People cannot go into business or enlarge their businesses when they don’t know what the next day-week-month-year is going to bring them in costs & profits.
Let me fix that for the authors of this piece.
The plan proposes raising $41 billion during the next 10 years by cutting several oil-and-gas industry deductions
The plan proposesraisingincreasing fuel costs to consumers by $41 billion during the next 10 years by cutting several oil-and-gas industry deductions
I also left that as a comment over on the source website. Let's see if they publish that.
That's over $4 Trillion over the next 1,000 years! Now we're talking real money.
"Obama's deficit plan requires new taxes on Oil and Gas production".
Oil and Gas companies are not getting a "special" tax break, they are getting the same one any capital intensive industry gets
How about he eliminates the subsidies for Soleynron? There is $50 Billion in wasteful spending right there. BOzo doesn’t even have a clue.
Pray for America
You’re correct and that holds true for the other proposals in this article.
IMHO Obama knows that his days in the throne room are numbered so he is going to do as much damage to the American system of enterprise as he can before the end of his reign.
Well said, you nailed it!
That's passed through my mind a few times (and once this morning) as well.
I could not imagine anybody who hated America and wanting to destroy American could have done anything differently than Obama's been doing since 2008.
Sounds like what Gadaffi did a few weeks ago to Libya. If he's going to go down then so will the whole nation.
Only difference between Obama and Gadaffi was that Libya at least had a chance under Gadaffi.
Let’s see that tax end up in the consumers wallet..... thinner wallets = cr*p economy...... did this guy really go to college?
His "college" records are sealed
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.