Oil Spill Trust Fund Money Raised but Oil Company Taxes Lose Out
The recent signing of The Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund law by President Obama has done away with a spending limit for cleanup expenditure. A Federal Trust Fund has given the US Coast Guard in excess of $100 million to deal with the emergency caused by the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
The money that supports The Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund is derived from the oil companies’ tax of eight cents per gallon. However, when Capitol Hill wanted votes in order to hike up taxes on Big Oil it couldn’t muster enough.
An industry tax repeal of $35 billion in oil and gas breaks was presented by Bernie Sanders the senator for Vermont Independent. This offer of repeal did not get a simple majority within that legislative body. There were thirty five votes in favor. In order to pass the tax repeal the Senate regulations demand sixty votes for a super majority. This means that even fifty one positives would not be good enough.
There is an ongoing argument about the extenders for comprehensive tax and unemployment benefits persistent assessment. Senator Sander’s offer was a measure of that debate. Even though Democrats promise to make another attempt it is not likely to work. The argument is the proposal by Sanders would negatively affect Big Oil and also the smaller producers.
The chairmen of Shell, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil criticized BP thereby doing Big Oil a certain amount of good. They also informed Congress things would have been carried out differently if they had been holding the reigns. No mercy was shown to BP and it was business at its ruthless best.
