Karen Matusic | 202-682-8118 | matusick@api.org
WASHINGTON, February 26, 2008 – API issued the following statement on proposed tax legislation in the House targeting the oil and natural gas industry:
“It is regrettable that the House is resurrecting an idea wisely rejected by Congress last year. New taxes targeting the U.S. oil and natural gas industry will even further reduce our energy security by discouraging new domestic oil and natural gas production and refinery capacity expansions, and will tilt the competitive playing field for global energy resources against U.S. based companies. The discriminatory bill would discourage investment in domestic fuel production, hurt consumers, threaten U.S. jobs and penalize the millions of retirees and workers whose pension funds, IRAs and 401ks are invested in oil and natural gas company stock.
“U.S. oil and natural gas companies pay considerably more in taxes as a percentage of their income than do all U.S. manufacturing companies. According to the federal Energy Information Administration, in 2006, the top 27 energy producing companies paid more than $81 billion in income taxes (an 82 percent increase in just two years). Their 2006 income taxes, as a share of net income before income tax, averaged 40.7 percent compared to 22.1 percent for all U.S. manufacturing companies.”