Here’s something I forgot to mention in my post on subsidies for energy companies: If you want to reduce the amount of subsidies to oil companies, let them drill on U.S. lands, such as ANWR, which are off-limits to them now.
Come again?
About a fifth of the money that the Environmental Law Institute considers to be subsidies to oil companies are credits due them under the provisions of the Foreign Tax Credit. That credit is open to any company–in the oil business or not–that incurs a tax obligation to a foreign country.
Oil companies are subjected to foreign taxes when they do business on foreign soil. And that do that in part because some of the most promising spots in the U.S. have been placed off-limit by politicians who are either playing NIMBY or pandering to the “Green” crowd. In doing so, the politicians send oil operations–and the resulting taxes–to other countries.
See here for ANWR.
From The Detroit News: http://apps.detnews.com/apps/blogs/watercooler/index.php?blogid=1243