Phydeaux
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quote:
ORIGINAL: DesideriScuri
quote:
ORIGINAL: DomKen
We give special tax breaks to the 5 biggest oil companies of more than $2 billion a year.
http://www.dpc.senate.gov/docs/lb-112-2-63.pdf
It's pretty clear they don't need these. Surely we can all agree we should not give them a tax break for paying foreign nation's royalties.
Multiple studies show that the total subsidy for fossil fuel production in the US is $10 billion a year.
http://www.oecd.org/site/tadffss/USA.pdf
http://www.eli.org/Program_Areas/innovation_governance_energy.cfm
http://priceofoil.org/content/uploads/2012/05/SandersSummaryFinal.pdf
Look over the lists. Should we really be giving the oil companies a tax break to be pumping oil from marginal and inefficient wells? How about the fact that we let them deduct 15% from their pre tax receipts for depletion of their investments? How about the fast depreciation of Alaska pipelines (7 years instead of 15)? How about the one where coal min operators get a tax deduction meant to incentivize US manufacturing?
Forbes articlequote:
Basically, Percentage Depletion is the oil and gas industry’s version of a depreciation deduction for its main asset, which is the oil and natural gas in the ground, commonly known as its reserves. Every industry of any kind is allowed a depreciation deduction on its assets under the U.S. Tax Code, but, far from being a “subsidy” for “big oil”, this tax treatment was in fact repealed for all integrated oil companies, i.e., ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, etc., in 1975, and is today available only to independent producers and royalty owners. So repeal of this extremely long-standing, completely common tax treatment would have no effect on “big oil” at all, and would in fact hit small producers and royalty owners harder than anyone else.
Another great example of the specious mischaracterization of these tax treatments is the Manufacturer’s Tax Deduction, more commonly referred to as Section 199. The Section 199 provision was enacted by congress in 2004 as a means of encouraging manufacturers to relocate overseas jobs to the U.S., and is in no way specific to or limited to the oil and gas industry. In fact, the oil & gas industry’s ability to take advantage of this provision has already been singled out for limitation – in 2008, Congress reduced the industry’s deduction under this provision to 2/3rds of what other manufacturing industries are allowed to deduct.
The tax code contains a couple of credits related to the oil and gas industry – the Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) Tax Credit, and the Marginal Well Tax Credit. Far from being “subsidies” to “big oil”, these tax credits are used almost exclusively by small to mid-size independent producers who tend to become the operators of marginal oil and gas fields as they age and are divested by the larger companies. The EOR credit was implemented in 1990, and the Marginal Well Credit was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994.
Finally, let’s talk about Intangible Drilling Costs (IDCs), another feature of the federal tax code that will enjoy its’ 100th birthday in 2013. Basically, IDCs are the costs incurred by the oil and gas industry in the drilling of its wells. Since drilling wells is the only means of finding oil and natural gas, IDCs essentially amount to what any other industry would be able to deduct as a part of its cost of goods sold, a concept of accounting and tax law as old as the tax code itself.
Independent producers and royalty owners are allowed an election to either a) expense these costs in the year they are incurred, or b) amortize them over a 5-year period. Again, most media reports commonly characterize this as a “subsidy” for “big oil”, as does the Obama Administration. The truth is that “big oil” – the ExxonMobils, Chevrons, Shells and BPs of the world – benefit much less from this tax treatment, it having been severely limited to them by congress in 1986, and again in 1992. And the truth also is that IDCs are not a “subsidy” to anyone engaged in the oil and gas business.
The Price of Oil Organization has a spreadsheet listing all the fossil fuel "subsidies" (air quoted because, well, if you have followed this thread, you know why).
I made some changes to the excel sheet (the link above gets you their spreadsheet, from their site) to lump totals into the categories on the excel sheet, extracted the "Big Oil" listing from the entire list (which includes coal and nat. gas). The "Big Oil" list is presented below (numbers in the millions of dollars):
Table 25.2. Summary of fossil-fuel support to petroleum – United States
Support element Jurisdiction 2010p
Producer Support Estimate
Support to unit returns
Total support to unit returns 1553.34
Severance Tax Exemptions for Crude Oil TX 83.64
Development Credit for Certain Producers AK 13.53
Exclusion of Low-Volume Oil & Gas Wells WV 3.18
Income support
Exception from Passive Loss Limitation Federal 11.94
Support for capital formation
Expensing of Exploration and Development Costs Federal 159.14
Excess of Percentage over Cost Depletion Federal 224.32
Temporary Expensing of Equipment for Refining Federal 760
Aid to Small Refiners for EPA Capital Costs Federal 0
Enhanced Oil Recovery Credit Federal 0
Sales Tax Exemption for Oil & Gas Equipment TX 48.54
Qualified Capital Expenditure Credit AK 232.74
Alternative Credit for Exploration AK 16.31
Support for knowledge creation
Total Knowledge Creation 59.68
Amortisation of Geological Expenditure Federal 59.68
Consumer Support Estimate
Total Consumption Support 1611.44
Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program Federal 570.23
Small Municipality Energy Assistance Program AK 0
Power Cost Equalization AK 37.03
Alaska Heating Assistance Program AK 2.25
Gasoline Tax Exemptions TX 78.9
Fuel Tax Exemptions for Farmers both 923.03
Consumer Support Estimate
Total Fuel Tax Exemption 184.5
Fuel Tax Exemption for Aviation WV 2.3
Fuel Tax Exemption for Dyed Diesel WV 68.6
Fuel Tax Exemption for Propane WV 13.4
Fuel Tax Exemption for County Boards of Education WV 13.6
Fuel Tax Exemption for Certain Public Administrations WV 1.8
Fuel Tax Exemption for Certain Off-Highway Uses WV 84.8
General Services Support Estimate
Total General Services Support 1097.89
Strategic Petroleum Reserve Federal 1077.35
Fossil Energy R&D Federal 17.32
Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve Federal 3.22
Total 4506.85
What are the Top 4 listings?
1. Strategic Petroleum Reserve: $1.077B
2. Fuel Tax Exemptions for Farmers $0.923B
3. Temporary Expensing of Equipment for Refining $0.760B
4. Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program $0.570B
No need for a Strategic Petroleum Reserve? No need for Farmers Fuel Tax Exemptions? No need to help those low income people?
$2.5B of the overall $4.5B is in those 3 programs. That's roughly 56% of the "Big Oil" "subsidies." Even if you disagree with #1, do you disagree with #2 and #4 (roughly 33% of the "Big Oil" "subsidies")?
LOL.. thats the thing with lefties. It takes constant effort to counter things they make up off the top of their head.
"there were no planes in range of benghazi".
The *facts* are that the oil industry is a huge net payer of taxes.
"But.. but.. " Good work Des..
Now.. do you want to readdress the question of more than $16 billion in subsidies that renewables got this year?
< Message edited by Phydeaux -- 8/24/2013 1:12:13 PM >
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RE: Little fact about global warming for you - 
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