Last week, I said that if Congress has to make cuts, we should embrace the idea of ridding ourselves of wasteful giveaways to the fossil fuel industry. Here's an idea. Let's cut the Master Limited Partnership loophole and fossil fuel subsidies.
The Master Limited Partnership is an obscure but harmful multibillion dollar loophole that allows fossil fuel companies to avoid all income taxes on transportation or processing of fossil fuels -- things like oil pipelines. Renewable energy companies don't have the same option, meaning the taxpayer is subsidizing polluters at the expense of cleaner, renewable energy. The total cost to the taxpayer? $2.4 billion dollars every 5 years. Now, some folks propose to extend the Master Limited Partnership to green industries. That's fine, but what about leveling the playing field and cutting the deficit at the same?
The Master Limited Partnership is just one example of the billions of dollars in handouts that polluters get from Congress. For instance, BP was able to deduct nearly $10 billion from cleaning up its own mess in the Gulf of Mexico. Over the next 10 years, fossil fuel companies will receive over $110 billion in taxpayer giveaways. Ending these subsidies would recoup the $12 billion fossil fuel companies will be able to deduct by claiming they are manufacturers, and the almost $11 billion we will lose from free leases to drill on public land.
With all the chatter in Washington, it is easy to miss what is really at stake. The debate is about our country's future; it's about fairness; it's about whether we invest in jobs or tax breaks for hedge fund managers, polluters and already profitable industries. It's about whether we level the playing field for sustainable energy or continue to give unnecessary and harmful tax breaks to oil companies who have been making record profits -- and not paying their fair share.
It's time for Republicans in Congress to put their money where their mouth is. Middle class families should not be forced to scrape by with less while oil companies get away with more. Any cuts we make should reflect our priorities and needs as a country. Rather than cutting important lifelines like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, let's cut corporate tax loopholes like the Master Limited Partnership.. The five largest oil companies made more than $1 trillion in profits in the last decade. They don't need our help.
UPDATE: Many of you asked how we can end wasteful tax breaks like the Master Limited Partnership. I introduced a bill with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). You can find out more here.
Follow Rep. Keith Ellison on Twitter: www.twitter.com/keithellison
All businesses deduct costs from revenue to arrive at profits. Deductions taken by oil companies are no different than any other business deducting the cost of producing their goods or services. In fact, oil companies often endure arbitrary discrimination in the tax code - as the target of misguided politicians like Mr. Ellison.
Oil companies pay more in taxes than they make in profits. Ellison is off the rails with his absurd rant, just like his implosion on Hannity last night.
ASCR DISCOVERY – Big Iron Story
Air-breathing batteries could fuel electric cars
Posted October 13, 2011
The target: lithium-air batteries, with a projected energy density per unit of weight that’s five to 10 times that of lithium-ion technology. “Understanding the Ultimate Battery Chemistry: Rechargeable Lithium/Air” has 15 million processor hours on Intrepid, the IBM Blue Gene/P at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and 10 million on ORNL’s Jaguar, a Cray XT. That’s on top of a 24 million-hour allocation in 2010. Collaborators include researchers at both labs, at IBM, and at Vanderbilt University.
Lithium-air’s prospects as the ultimate battery have drawn plenty of attention, Wilcke says. In 2009, when IBM held a meeting to examine the issues, only a handful of research groups focused on lithium-air. “Now, I’ve lost track. It’s probably more than 50 organizations working on it worldwide.”
Translating formulae into reality isn’t easy, and the INCITE project already has challenged some of the conventional thinking.
Unfortunately, since oil companies pay a higher effective tax rate than the average of all other industries, and lower tax deductions for capital investment than others pay, that would mean lowering their tax burden.
Mr. Ellison--let's talk about GE.
Fossils get 500M$ in breaks per year per GW.
I'm sure your tax number is very clever spin by really smart folks, but it's still bs.
Fossils and nukes get 10-100 times the total breaks that solar wind and waste get. subsidies provided to producers of fossil fuels may be on the order of US$
100 billion per year (GSI, 2009). http://www.iea.org/weo/docs/G20_Subsidy_Joint_Report.pdf
Did you include the wars for oil in your calculations?
Solar panels are 1/5th the cost of the fossils fuels needed to produce the same KWH, and waiegh just 1/1000th as much.
the solar panels can be recycled forever.
You need to keep digging up the fossils.
Obviously only major gov break keep fossils and nukes alive at all.
In the USA, gov fee are now half the cost of installed solar.
So get it straight: The playing field is tilted towards fossils and nukes at an angle about about 10 to 1.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_limited_partnership
You are wrong.
It IS used by the the extraction industry primarily.
The other thing Oil and gas companies may do if it is too expensive to run a business in America is scale back there, and amp up production in other countries, further weakening that part of the American economy.
Only 500M$ in taxpayer breaks to fossil and nukes, per year per GW, 100B$ per year USA, let them even compete.
The proper solution is feed in tariffs to the clean producers and help for the users.
Cut all breaks to fossils and nukes, give them all to solar wind and waste.
Clean safe 24/7 using existing fossils generators with clean waste bio char fuels, forever.
Did I mention cheaper?
Solar panels at 50 cent per Wp are now 1/5th the cost of fossils fuels for the same KWH produced.
do the math.
If other companies have to pay those taxes, then so should the oil companies. Otherwise, cut the taxes entirely and level the playing field for *all* forms of energy so they have to compete.
In 2013, if the Democrats can reform the Senate filibuster rules, it is possible that a budget/fiscal cliff/debt ceiling deal could be passed by simple Senate majority (with 53 Democrats and 1 Independent) which finally ends the Big Oil subsidies.
ONLY if the Senate can reform its filibuster rules will anything be achieved in the Senate. Ending subsidies has already been designated as NOT a tax increase by the GOP de facto leader, Grover Norquist, so Republicans in the House cannot pretend their anti-tax philosophy prevents them from supporting an end to the Big Oil subsidies. Of course, that's never before stopped the Tea Party-GOP from being delusional and still trying to stem the tide of public opposition to these subsidies.
But you guys killed it! The states love the taxes and revenues they collect from drilling activity. They also love the jobs that we create - actual, real jobs, alot of them in poor regions of the country. Jobs: welders, truckdrivers, steel companies, pipelines, refineries, drilling crews, stores and restaurants. Democrats represent the people of their districts and by voting to curtail economic activity they would only be harming themselves by making their districts poorer.
Not much oil and gas drilling activity up there in Minnesota though so it's easier for you to 'take a stand' and vote against peoples jobs in other states.
fourth)My clients hire me to make them money and represent them. I do appreciate the spelling and puctuation lesson. My assistant takes care of correspondence. Thank you for the good conversation.
or that there are lazy people who don't have jobs cause its their own fault?
or that we have a "spending" problem not a "revenue" problem?
mr ellison is my rep and i would take him over shelly blachmann anyday...
although you probably like her for her american ingenuity in acquiring lots of subsidies