BIG OIL CONFRONTED

Senate grills oil executives over high gas prices; The oilmen say they're not to blame and object to a proposal by Senate Democrats to scale back the industry's tax breaks.
Richard Simon, May 13, 2011 (LA Times)

"Amid rising public anger over high gasoline prices, oil company executives defended their industry at a contentious Capitol Hill hearing…and fought a Democratic drive to scale back their tax breaks."

[Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.):] “Given profits of $35 billion in just the first quarter alone, it's hard to find evidence that repealing these subsidies would cut domestic production or cause layoffs…"

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"The atmosphere was friendlier for the industry on the other side of the Capitol, where the Republican-controlled House approved a third bill in a week to expand offshore drilling…[O]pposed by the White House, [the measures have] little chance of passing in the Democratic-controlled Senate…The activity underscored the heightened political anxiety over [high] gas prices…Lawmakers are scrambling to respond…even if there is little they can do…[except] highlight their parties' differences over energy policy and provide fodder for 2012 campaign ads.

"At the Senate hearing, Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), great-grandson of Standard Oil's founder, accused the oil executives of being ‘deeply, profoundly out of touch’ with ordinary Americans, unwilling to engage in the shared sacrifices that loom as Congress considers deep spending cuts…"

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"The oilmen, a familiar sight at congressional grillings when gas prices move upward, argued that scaling back their tax breaks would unfairly single out their industry, hamper their ability to pursue new energy supplies and put jobs at risk…

"The Senate could vote as early as next week on a proposal to scale back, over a decade, $21 billion in tax breaks to the five major oil companies. Democrats have proposed steering the savings into reducing the federal deficit, an effort aimed at winning the support of budget-minded Republicans…"