Bill Bush | 202.682.8069 | bushw@api.org
WASHINGTON, August 6, 2010 – A new proposal from members of the Senate Finance Committee to rescind job-creating tax provisions for a handful of oil and natural gas companies would be counterproductive, according to API Tax Manager Stephen Comstock:
"It’s shortsighted to raise taxes and kill jobs, especially when so many Americans are out of work. Unwinding tax policy that has created thousands of high-paying jobs across the country – just for the top few U.S. oil and natural gas companies – will slow this engine of economic growth and prosperity. Raising taxes will put at risk jobs in the energy industry and jobs that rely on energy.
"Oil and natural gas companies already receive less benefit than other industries from the jobs-creating tax incentive that some in Congress now want to take away, and they pay income taxes at an effective rate more than 70 percent higher than other S&P Industrials. Higher taxes would not only jeopardize millions of existing and potential jobs, but they would penalize the people who actually own the companies affected by the proposal. This includes people with IRAs and 401ks; retirees with pensions, such as teachers, firefighters and police officers; and charitable institutions and other organizations supported in part by industry earnings.
"A just-released CERA study concludes the existing tax regime for oil and natural gas companies places them at a competitive disadvantage with their foreign competitors. The most recent tax proposal in the Senate would upend an already unlevel playing field, weakening an industry that currently supports more than 9.2 million American jobs."
Updated: August 18, 2010