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FUEL BILLS* USA - Senate Republicans block windfall taxes on Big Oil
Saved by Senate Republicans, big oil companies dodged an attempt Tuesday to slap them with a windfall profits tax and take away billions of dollars in tax breaks in response to the record gasoline prices that have the nation fuming
Washington,DC,USA -Associated Press, by H. JOSEF HEBERT -11 June 2008: -- ... GOP senators shoved aside the Democratic proposal, arguing that punishing Big Oil won't do a thing to lower the $4-a-gallon-price of gasoline that is sending economic waves across the country... The Democratic energy package would have imposed a 25 percent tax on any "unreasonable" profits of the five largest U.S. oil companies, which together made $36 billion during the first three months of the year. It also would have given the government more power to address oil market speculation, opened the way for antitrust actions against countries belonging to the OPEC oil cartel, and made energy price gouging a federal crime... Neither Republican presidential candidate John McCain nor his Democratic rival, Barack Obama, were in Washington to cast votes on the energy issue on Tuesday... Obama, in a statement, said Republicans had "turned a blind eye to the plight of America's working families" by refusing to take up the energy legislation. Obama has supported additional taxes on the oil companies. McCain is opposed to such taxes and has proposed across-the-aboard tax reductions for industry as a way to help the economy... "This was politics at its worst," complained Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. "This was a refusal to debate the biggest problem confronting the American people. ... That takes nerve."...
* Congress Tackles ‘Splash-and-Dash’ Loophole Giving Tax Credit for Exported Biodiesel
Washington,DC,USA -Transport Topics, by Eric Miller -9 June 2008: -- Two bills circulating in Congress would eliminate a loophole that permits foreign producers of biodiesel to get a tax credit if they “splash” their product with petroleum-based diesel in the United States and then sell it overseas... One provision to tighten the “splash-and-dash” loophole has passed the House as part of the Energy and Tax Extenders Act of 2008. The other was introduced last month by Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) and referred to the House Ways and Means Committee... Shadegg estimated the tax loophole cost the American taxpayers $300 million in lost revenue last year — and could jump to $900 million this year... Here’s how the splash-and-dash tax credit loophole works: Upon arrival in a U.S. port, a foreign biodiesel shipment is “splashed” with a minimal amount of conventional diesel fuel, making it eligible for a tax credit as much as $1 per gallon... After the conventional diesel is added, the ship then “dashes” to Europe, where the fuel can be sold at a cheaper price and even be eligible for additional subsidies... The House bill passed May 21 would not allow a tax credit for any foreign-produced biodiesel or biodiesel not sold in the United States... Charles “Shorty” Whittington, vice chairman of American Trucking Associations and president of tank-truck carrier Grammer Industries Inc., Grammer, Ind., called the splash-and-dash tax credit “a very bad deal.”... “It’s a situation where really shrewd people took advantage of some government programs and got a reinterpretation of the law, which shouldn’t have ever happened,” Whittington said. “What they do is, they bring diesel fuel into a port, like in Houston or something, and they add two gallons of B100 to every 98 gallons of diesel and pick up a $1 per gallon credit. That’s wrong... The other bad thing, and the National Biodiesel Board disagrees with ATA on this, is about 50% of the biodiesel produced in the U.S. was exported and the producers got a $1 per gallon credit for that,” Whittington said...
Labels: laws and bills USA
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