Americans Tell Congress: No New Taxes on the Energy Industry

[sangolt88]

The oil companies only care about short term revenue, and don't care about the future of the environment or the fact that the oil will one day start to shrink in production VS demand.

[113MPG]

You got paid well, I bet.

[DueCarnage]

Convincing people one shallow catch phrase at a time! Now is not the time to be taxing oil and natural gas because tax is bad!

Taxes once stole my milk in elementry school.

You guys would burn the world to the ground if you could make a profit off of it and I am sure your decendants will thank you.

[elfflower1989]

I say we tax corporations...for overseas productions. Force companies to keep the jobs in America. When the threat of them laying off all the people they employ is eliminated, taxing them for anything else becomes easier.

[hawk100375]

and taxing them more solves what exactly?

[DueCarnage]

I think he was suggesting that it would solve outsourcing.

One way or another we'll have to get off of limited-resource energy sources such as oil, natural gas and coal as they are by their very definition limited in nature. Renewable energy on the other hand do not suffer the same fatal flaw.

[powernaudio]

i say increase the amount of taxes they pay, and decrease the price of electricity and oil while they're at it.

im tired of paying out the wazoo for electricity as well as at the pump for gas. every year Americans earn less money and pay more on utilities and gas, this has got to stop.

[rdillon7872]

Yea change we can believe in....

Pennies on the dollar..

[rsrs17]

Its good to know what a random sample of particularly attractive and/or blue-collar looking white americans thinks about energy policy

[kowalityjesus]

whadda load of malarchy!

i fear i will one day be a robot as well.

[BadhamPanorama]

E X T E R N A L I T I E S

Consumers are directly involved.

[chechnya]

Propaganda. Clear and simple. Why don't you ask some real Americans that are having trouble paying bills and not some office staff.

[Daddy9Long]

The more I read these post below, you people do not get it. I'm not mad at you all because I know that one day you understand because you will feel it. I have a 3 questions for you, 1. Whats keeping industrys in the US? 2. What do you think would happen to the US if industry leaves the US and goes to another country? 3. What can the Government do if the industrys leave the US?

[jfrsnjhnsn]

Do you not see that a US corporation has the choice to stay and keep jobs here or to farm their resources and jobs away?

Why would a corporation choose the 2nd option? To make more money.

What should you have learned a long time ago, but surely must have learned within the past year? That Corporations give millions if not billions a year to their CEO's.

A Corporation may elect to ditch America and Americans so that one guy can make millions. Does that seem like capitalism to you?

[salee320]

are you kidding me...this is republican bs propaganda....Do you yahoos realize YOU pay more taxes than the huge corporations laughing at you on their way to the bank...sometimes they pay ZERO taxes with all their write-offs and loopholes. How does that make you feel?

[Daddy9Long]

You don't get it. This is real.

[energy]

salee320, here's another perspective for you: "According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the industry's 2007 income tax expenses (as a share of net income before income taxes) averaged 40.4 percent, compared to 26.7 percent for all U.S. manufacturing companies... from 2005-2007, the major energy producing companies paid or incurred over $242 billion of income tax expense." (This is from our "Putting Earnings in Perspective" primer, page 13.)

[salee320]

Dear Mr. Energy: your comment says it all: "as a share of net income before income taxes". BEFORE taxes you say....After taxes, the figure is 17%, less than you or I pay. Quit obfuscating the truth to suit your political ideology, you republican, you. Oh, and BTW, let's keep paying those CEO's 400 million dollar bonuses, especially those whose company's are failing and taking bailouts from the little guy.

[hal698]

What next? Air? Water? Don't laugh! You cannot drill a water well in Texas without paying them for every drop you take out of the ground. How do you like the burecratic mess we've voted ourselves into now?. Can you spell Socialism? Not yet comrade, but I can tell I'm going to have to learn.

[steevmoor]

Drilling is inefficient, so is coal. What's more, there are costs to the general public in smog emissions. If you're worried about cost, demand carbon composite vehicles, plug-in hybrid technology, wind energy and mass energy storage facilities like reservoirs. The big energy companies DON'T want to innovate.

[Rev0lutionIsMyName]

Taxes are not meant to govern behavior!! Cigarette taxes for example, now I don't smoke but last I checked cigarettes aren't illegal. If someone wants to roast their lungs for stress relief, THAT IS THEIR RIGHT!

The government is not supposed to dictate your decisions in any way, shape, or form unless you are impinging on someone else's rights. Selective taxing is a blatant violation of freedom and why people don't see that really depresses me.

[74VDC]

All taxes are selective. It may be someones "right to roast their lungs", but if after doing so they check into a hospital with no insurance..then what? Then they become a burden on me and other taxpayers...that's NOT their right. New energy taxes are needed, and they do influence behavior...they idea is to make that behavior present positive benefits for our country. Gov'ts not supposed to influence ur decisions in any way eh? Hmmm...since when?

[Craigkill3]

Good Video and accurte no taxes on energy after all who has to pay the bill? The energy consumer you and I!

[stever7golf]

Deregulation has easily destroyed 50,000 households in the past 20 years. It is time to heavily regulate big oil, so we can commit to better technologies, before oil wars, and pollution brings down the world.

[x0ml]

Everyone that thinks that the govt should raise taxes during a recession/depression needs to go take Economics 101. Just just plain stupidity. Businesses are already trying to find ways to streamline their expenses, adding more taxes on them will just force them to layoff more people in order to not go out of business! Capitalism is NOT a bad thing people!!!

[skeener54]

Agree completely. We need more drilling, more exploration. It is to our benefit, folks.

This is certainly not the time to be raising taxes.

[elfflower1989]

Money is not the only benefit in this world. We gain nothing by destroying our own home. Alternative energy production and research = more jobs, cheaper energy, and competition among companies that would no longer be the sole providers of much needed resources. Plus, if we do it right, it could help clean up the earth.

[JasonRSmyth]

In a down economy, taxing people that are not making any money is not going to generate much revenue....

[desertdwllr]

Why is anyone defending these corporate clowns?  We all pay taxes, they should pay their share also.

This country has the greatest military, infrastructure, etc.. in the world. ALL of this costs money!! ALL money comes from TAXES !!!! taxes ARE a NEED!

[bws1971]

This is the argument they use to raise this tax. But the cost of the tax will be passed along to you and me and everyone else who USES energy. Open your head, man!

[keith5000]

Tax hikes on energy companies trickle down to the consumer. (If you don't understand this simple economic principle, then go back to Econ 101.) The root problem is that the government is spending RECKLESSLY.  The solution is not to raise taxes on anyone, but to curb govt spending.

[samsellers99]

Right on! We can't raise taxes on the oil companies, or else they'll make less money, and Wall Street needs a success story these days.

This oil company propaganda disgusts me, and it's insulting to many across the country that you choose to take our money, feed us misleading advertisements about the damage new taxation would do to your industry, all the while virtually eliminating your investments in green technology (such as BP's decision to dramatically cut back its solar operation).

[swissdoctoring]

This is ridiculous. This video showed up as a paid add on a website. This means someone is dumping money in this video.???

I think oil should become government regulated so oil companies cannot take advantage of the american people by making unfair oil prices. I also think the oil companies should pay for the cost of securing oil in the middle east (i.e., they should finance the war in Iraq).

[mjwaters2]

agreed

[bws1971]

THE COST OF THE TAX WILL BE PAID IN THE FORM OF HIGHER ENERGY PRICES BY CONSUMERS.

What is so difficult about this to understand???

[elfflower1989]

federal price cap?