While the price of oil skyrockets, oil companies are pulling in massive profits and collecting tidy subsidies from American taxpayers. Something is dreadfully wrong with this picture. The Senate may soon vote on a measure to end Big Oil subsidies, which amounts to 4 billion dollars a year. Ask your Senators to vote against Big Oil subsidies.
These subsidies go to the same industry that is pushing legislation to allow offshore development without new safety requirements. The oil industry fights safety inspections, complains about environmental safeguards critical to protecting community water supplies and wildlife refuges, pressures Congress to gut environmental laws and blocks attempts to ensure that the taxpaying public gets fair value through royalties when they exploit the lands that belong to all Americans.
According to the federal government's Energy Information Administration, the average cost to produce a barrel of oil in the United States is approximately $30. So when oil companies sell a barrel for triple the cost — $100 or more, as they have been for months - the oil industry is pocketing at least $70, and passing the cost on to you and me.
In a budget environment where severe cuts to environmental protection programs, education and programs like Medicare are being threatened, there's no place for the oil industry giveaways that cost taxpayers $40 billion each decade.
And thanks, again, for all you do to protect America’s wild places.
Sincerely,
Kathy Kilmer
Kathy Kilmer
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