Obama Budget Would Cut $40 Billion in Fossil-Fuel Credits
by Jim Snyder and Brian Wingfield (Bloomberg) President Barack Obama, who pledged an “all of the above” energy strategy that included fossil fuels, renewed his proposal to cut more than $40 billion in tax breaks for oil, gas and coal producers in the next decade to spend more for conservation and alternate energy.
“We need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil by ending the subsidies for oil companies and doubling down on clean energy that generates jobs and strengthens our security,” Obama said today in a speech on at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Virginia.
Republicans sided last year with companies including Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) of Irving, Texas, and ConocoPhillips (COP) of Houston, to push back Obama’s repeal of the fossil-fuel breaks, saying U.S. jobs would be lost as producers denied the credit would move operations overseas.
…The plan calls for a $4.75 billion cut in tax credits for oil companies in 2013, including repeal of $3.49 billion in so- called intangible drilling costs, for a savings of $38.6 billion by 2022. The budget shows cuts equal about 1 percent of domestic oil and gas revenue in the next 10 years. READ MORE and MORE (The Guardian)
