Obama's Plan for $10 Gas

[Geee]

American Thinker:



American drivers are angry at having to pay $4 a gallon for gas, and understandably so. Their anger is often directed at the oil companies that supply the gas. It should be directed at Barack Obama instead.

From the beginning of his appearance on the national stage, Obama has focused on the goal of driving up energy prices with the idea of "weaning" America off fossil fuels. He has succeeded in driving up prices, all right, but not in reducing dependence on fossil fuels. According to "The Outlook for Energy 2011," fossil fuels now supply 80% of global demand. That percentage will remain unchanged through 2030 despite hundreds of billions in subsidies squandered on wind and solar.

Nor has Obama succeeded in reducing our dependence on foreign sources of oil. According to the American Petroleum Institute imports now amount to some 11 million barrels per day or 56% of deliveries. That compares with 35% in 1973 and 42% in 1990. Despite imposition of strict mileage standards and the burden of higher prices on the consumer, the level of imports has not declined significantly under President Obama.
In fact, Obama's energy policies have created the worst of all possible worlds for American consumers: higher prices and continued dependency on imported oil.

Now, in the ongoing deficit reduction talks, the President is insisting on cutting $45 billion of incentives for oil and gas companies over the next decade. The Democrats like to portray these incentives as "special breaks" for Big Oil, but in fact they are no different from expensing and depreciation allowances enjoyed by most manufacturing businesses. In reality, Obama's proposal has nothing to do with "special breaks" for oil companies. Instead, it is a "special tax" aimed specifically at oil and gas.

The proposed $45-billion tax on America's oil companies would be in addition to the excessive and disproportionate taxes already paid by the industry. The oil majors already pay $35.7 billion in taxes annually. That's 41.1% of net income, far more than the average of 26% for S&P500 companies outside the energy sector (2009 figures). Between 1980 and 2009 American oil and gas companies paid $1 trillion in taxes, and at current levels American producers will be paying another $714 billion in taxes over the next decade.

No unbiased observer can say that the American oil and gas industry is under-taxed. And yet Obama wants to pile on more taxes with the aim of bringing some of our nation's greatest corporations under the heel of government control.