by dada
Tue Jun 10th, 2008 at 03:25:18 PM EST
don't worry, the party that wants to bring you
the change you deserve is giving it to you again...
today the RATpublican'ts in the senate killed a bill that would have placed a windfall profits tax on the profits of the largest oil companies...the legislation was turned back by a 51-43 vote.
more below the fold
in a vote along partisan lines, the RATpub's have once again rallied behind the interests of big oil and embraced the ill-advised energy policies that have been the hallmark of this administration:
Senate GOP blocks oil taxes
The Democratic energy package would have imposed a tax on any "unreasonable" profits of the five largest U.S. oil companies and given the federal government more power to address oil market speculation that the bill's supporters argue has added to the crude oil price surge.
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The windfall profits bill would have imposed a 25 percent tax on profits over what would be determined "reasonable" when compared to profits several years ago. The oil companies could have avoided the tax if they invested the money in alternative energy projects or refinery expansion. It also would have rescinded oil company tax breaks -- worth $17 billion over the next 10 years -- with the revenue to be used for tax incentives to producers of wind, solar and other alternative energy sources as well as for energy conservation.
The legislation also would:
--Require traders to put up more collateral in the energy futures markets and open the way for federal regulation of traders who are based in the United States but use foreign trading platforms. The measures are designed to reduce market speculation.
--Make oil and gas price gouging a federal crime, with stiff penalties of up to $5 million during a presidentially declared energy emergency.
--Authorize the Justice Department to bring charges of price fixing against countries that belong to the OPEC oil cartel.
to borrow a phrase from poppy: READ MY LIPS! NO NEW TAXES "if they invested the money in alternative energy projects or refinery expansion".
fear not though, they have a plan for the spare change you deserve, and it just happens to involve ANWR:
"Republicans by and large believe that the solution to this problem, in part, is to increase domestic production," [RATpublican't leader, sing along with mitch] McConnell said.
A GOP energy plan, rejected by the Senate last month, calls for opening a coastal strip of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil development and to allow states to opt out of the national moratorium that has been in effect for a quarter century against oil and gas drilling in more than 80 percent of the country's coastal waters.
LAT
who'd a thunk.
