Today’s Wall Street Journal has a piece on the Obama administration’s tax battles with the oil industry. The Journal quotes Interior Secretary Ken Salazar as hinting that Big Oil stands to be the biggest losers:
In an interview Wednesday, Mr. Salazar signaled that the administration might reconsider some proposed tax increases on small, independent producers.
“If it is going to have a disproportionate impact on a mom-and-pop kind of operation, I do think that’s something that should be taken into consideration,” Mr. Salazar said.
Curious. Give a break to “mom-and-pop” oil companies, so that they are not disproportionately affected. But stick it to the major oil producers that deliver the bulk of the nation’s oil — which will, in turn, negatively affect far more people than will be helped by small producers escaping the taxman’s bite. Brilliant.
How’s this for an alternative? Level the playing field. Don’t put consumers on the hook for the higher costs that result from increased regulation and higher tax burdens. Don’t favor some fuels over others (but if you just cannot stand not to subsidize, don’t favor the energy sources that do little to meet our energy needs over the ones that pull the weight). Let various fuels make it or break it in the marketplace, so we can see which ones deliver to the American people the power they need at a price they can afford. Allow domestic oil and gas producers to explore for and extract from currently off-limits areas with abundant reserves of petroleum and other fossil fuels, rather than doing nothing while at the same time decrying our dependence on foreign oil. Don’t mandate the large-scale use of energies that aren’t ready for prime time, technologically and/or economically. Just a thought.