According to the May 9th cnn.com article, “Big Oil CEOs to face lawmakers'', CEOs from what's known as the Big Five oil companies will attend the hearing on May 12th, and include John Watson, CEO of Chevron, Marvin Odum, President of Shell, Lamar McKay, BP America Chairman, Jim Mulva, CEO of ConocoPhillips, and Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exxon Mobil.
The age old dance is one with which all parties are familiar, and one that ensues every time there's pain at the pump: the oil industry and its mainly Republican supporters in Congress argue that tax breaks encourage the production of oil domestically, and give jobs to scores of Americans. Taking away the tax breaks will result in cost increases, ultimately, for consumers.
However, Democrat Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York posed a different argument, and was quoted as saying in the cnn.com article: “This week, we will make an important announcement about policy initiatives to get rid of these subsidies to close our deficits. For us, it's a two-for. We can stop adding to profits of big oil companies and reduce our deficits.''
Instead of giving Big Oil the tax breaks, the money could be invested in alternative energy sources, argued Sen. Max Baucus, Democrat and chair of the finance committee, and President Obama.
According to the May 2th abcnews.com article, “Oil Companies Expected to Defend Themselves From Accusations They Contributed to Increasing Oil and Gas Prices'' Baucus was quoted as saying in a prepared statement: “High gas and energy prices are hitting folks hard in Montana and across the country. Now is not the time to stand idly by while large oil and gas companies get billions of dollars in tax breaks – now is the time to take concrete steps toward cleaner, more affordable, domestically-produced energy.''
Scott Hodge, president of the Tax Foundation, a non-partisan tax research organization, was quoted as saying: “You shouldn't use the tax code for what amounts to political retribution against a particular industry. If you do that for oil companies, next it will be Pepsi and Coca-Cola for producing sugary drinks or McDonald's for fatty foods. You start going down the list to use tax code to punish particular industries. Once that starts, you've started horrible precedent for the future,'' according to the same abcnews.com article.
One might call supporting tax breaks like these a political ticking time bomb, especially given the estimated $1.5 trillion deficit for the fiscal year that ended in September, and in light of the recent 'near miss' government shutdown – actions that by any standards could qualify as shameful.
And, if our friendly neighborhood bi-partisans and CEOs can't hash it out, according to the cnn.com article, perhaps there's a flicker of hope after all. Following nearly six weeks of daily increases, the price of gas had dropped for four days in a row. Additionally, last week the price of crude oil fell sharply, which, hopefully should result in lower gas prices in the future.
Perhaps the lyrics of Uncle Kracker's all too right on the money song 'Corner Bar' sum it up best: “Once upon a time in the land of plenty, the land of lawyers, guns and money, a funny little thing we all call greed, brought my hometown down to its knees.''
