Tax Policy
Selling short-sighted tax “solutions” to Super Committee while bypassing billions in real revenue
The political pandering to the “Super Committee” on deficit reduction has kicked into high gear, and it’s not surprising that the U.S. oil and natural gas industry is first on the hit list for some seeking to score easy political points. Some members of both the House and Senate recently sent letters to the committee asking to eliminate what they’ve falsely labeled as “oil subsidies for the five largest, most profitable private oil companies in the world.” But such misinformation campaigns are only a symptom of a much larger and more disturbing problem: the short-sighted nature of proposed “solutions” for the U.S. deficit.
Higher taxes on oil companies won’t create jobs
This week the Administration is expected to announce its proposals for paying for the president’s new jobs plan.
Judging by last week’s speech, it seems likely that there will be another attempt to use oil companies as the “pay for” to fund programs outlined in the president’s address. If so, unfortunately this appears to be the latest effort in advocating for hiking oil and natural gas company taxes as a misguided solution to the country’s economic challenges.
ExxonMobil’s earnings, and America’s bottom line
Yesterday, ExxonMobil announced its second-quarter results – recording earnings of $10.7 billion. And while commentators talk about the contribution of this result to the company’s bottom line, it’s also important to note that it’s good for America’s bottom line, too. As I’ve talked about in previous posts, ExxonMobil contributes billions into the U.S. economy through federal and state taxes, royalties, jobs and capital projects while helping ensure continued supply of energy for U.S. consumers and businesses.
A $1 trillion contribution to the national economy
Debates continue about ways to reduce the deficit, create jobs, and jump-start the U.S. economy. One important way to approach the issue is focusing on our nation’s strengths, and how we can build upon them. And one of our strengths is our world-class oil and natural gas industry.
With its Sunday editorial, The New York Times continues the campaign to eliminate – only for the U.S. oil industry – standard deductions that are available to all industries and manufacturers. This is arbitrary, discriminatory and misinformed.
Our chairman and CEO, Rex Tillerson, appeared yesterday with other industry executives at the Senate Finance Committee hearing “Oil and Gas Tax Incentives and Rising Energy Prices.” Just from this title, you can see the issue at the center of this debate. Some in Washington are trying to connect industry taxes with gas prices; so, they reason that taking away legitimate, economy-wide tax deductions for ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP and ConocoPhillips will somehow make gas prices go down.
