Without fanfare, oil companies just received a tax break on New Year's Day
Source: Washington Post
Energy and Environment
Without fanfare, oil companies just received a tax break on New Year’s Day
By Juliet Eilperin and Dino Grandoni January 5 at 6:00 AM
Congressional Republicans allowed a tax on oil companies that generated hundreds of millions of dollars annually for federal oil-spill response efforts to expire this week — a move that amounts to another corporate break in the wake of lawmakers’ sweeping tax overhaul late last month.
The tax on companies selling oil in the United States generated an average of $500 million in federal revenue per year, according to the Government Accountability Office. The money, collected through a 9 cents-per-barrel tax on domestic crude oil and imported crude oil and petroleum products, constituted the main source of revenue for the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund.
The fund has at least $5.75 billion in reserve. Intended to help the government respond quickly to accidents on land or offshore, it was established in 1986 but only got a stable source of funding in the wake of the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill. ... The tax, which expired Sunday, had lapsed before but was renewed under the bipartisan 2005 Energy Policy Act. Federal officials recently had debated whether it should be expanded to apply to oil sands products.
Although GOP leaders opted not to renew the tax in December, they are considering reinstating it retroactively in an “extenders” bill that would revive several recently expired taxes. Industry officials noted that the U.S. Coast Guard or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration could always ask Congress to reimpose it if either felt it was needed. ... A White House official did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
....
Juliet Eilperin is The Washington Post's senior national affairs correspondent, covering how the new administration is transforming a range of U.S. policies and the federal government itself. She is the author of two books—one on sharks, and another on Congress, not to be confused with each other—and has worked for the Post since 1998. Follow @eilperin
Dino Grandoni is an energy and environmental policy reporter and the author of PowerPost's daily tipsheet on the beat, The Energy 202. Follow @dino_grandoni
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/01/05/republicans-allowed-a-tax-on-oil-companies-to-expire-and-almost-nobody-noticed/
Retweeted by Dave Weigel: https://twitter.com/daveweigel
Up til Dec. 31, 2017, oil companies were taxed 9 cents per barrel to fund spill cleanups.
On Jan. 1, 2018, GOP let the tax drop to 0.
Story w/ @eilperin:
Link to tweet
= new reply since forum marked as read
we're going to need every penny of that clean-up fund to undo the environmental catastrophes that are sure to come. That orange, blubbery piece of crap is going to undo every environmental and safety act this country has. Each new day brings further embarrassment and calamity to our beloved country. 
