Pacific Progressive

Big Oil’s Mountain of Cash - Oil Companies Cling to Tax Breaks While Hoarding Tens of Billions

This material was published by the Center for American Progress.

By Daniel J. Weiss, Valeri Vasquez 

View Big Oil's cash assets and profits (.xls)

On September 19 President Barack Obama announced his plan to reduce the deficit by $4 trillion over the next 12 years, including raising $1.5 trillion by closing special interest loopholes and other revenue raisers. This includes eliminating $41 billion in tax loopholes for the oil and gas industry (p. 63) over the next decade.

Big Oil is predictably opposed to losing its unnecessary tax breaks. The American Petroleum Institute, or API, the oil industry’s lobbying muscle, quickly claimed that “the Administration plan would hurt jobs and investment.”

But this claim ignores the fact that the big five oil companies—BP, Chevron, ConocoPhilips, ExxonMobil, and Shell—have ample financial resources that dwarf the value of these tax breaks. These companies enjoy billions in cash reserves, made nearly $1 trillion in profits over the past decade, and at least one company (ExxonMobil) pays a lower effective tax rate than the average American family.

In other words, Big Oil can readily afford to contribute its “fair share” to reduce America’s debt.

New Oil Isn't Quite the Transformation the NYT Implies

From Beat the Press at the Center for Economic and Policy Research

The NYT implied that shale oil production and new oil sources elsewhere in the western hemisphere will transform oil production and use in the United States. For example, it notes that production from shale oil could exceed 2 million barrels a day by 2020 and then adds:

"The United States already produces about half of its own oil needs, so the increase could help it further peel away dependence on foreign oil."

Actually, this oil will largely replace declining yields from older fields in Alaska and elsewhere. The United States was not especially dependent on Middle East oil even before the new production in the hemisphere cited in this article. Only a bit over 20 percent of the oil imported in the United States came from the Middle East even a decade ago.

 

House Votes 'No' on Auto Jobs - GOP Leaders Continue Attack on Clean Car Jobs L

This material was published by the Center for American Progress.

By Daniel J. Weiss, James Barba Nazar 

The House Republicans’ assault on jobs continued last week, tucked into a bill to keep the government running after September 30. Early Friday morning the House passed a continuing resolution to fund the federal government through November 18 by a vote of 219-203. This bill includes $3.65 billion for emergency disaster relief but pays for it by cutting $1.5 billion for the Alternative Technology Vehicle Manufacturing loan program that helps domestic auto plants retool to manufacture the clean cars of the future. This offset—helping extreme weather victims by slashing auto jobs—was voted against by nearly all House Democrats and two dozen House Republicans.

The Senate immediately rejected this approach to disaster assistance by voting later that dayto table the House bill by a 59-36 vote. Senate Democrats support replenishing the nearly barren disaster relief cupboards but they oppose cutting the clean car jobs program to do it. The Senate could vote as early as Monday evening on funding the government and paying for disaster relief without disinvesting in clean car manufacturing and jobs.

Last week the Center for American Progress revealed that there are 18 pending ATVM loan applications in various stages of the approval process with a total request for $9.8 billion in loans. We identified these pending applications by state, loan request, and the type of project but we did not have more details about these proposals.

Five Biggest Right-Wing Lies About Solyndra

By Dave Johnson for Campaign for America's Future

Oil-backed conservatives have been absolutely ecstatic over the collapse of American solar-power company Solyndra and the rise of China as the dominant country in green energy, because they think they can turn this into a story that makes President Obama and government look bad. It also gives them a bonus opportunity to attack alternatives to coal and oil.

So is there really a "scandal" behind what happened to Solyndra? Or is this just one more conservative smear, made up from whole cloth and spread around conservative outlets, talk radio and FOX News, hoping the "mainstream media" will be tricked into propelling the propaganda out to the public?

The Smear Machine

When Bill Clinton was president, conservatives developed and refined a "smear machine" technique of making up accusation after accusation after accusation (after accusation after accusation), repeating them endlessly and hysterically in conservative-funded outlets, and working to get major media outlets to pick up and repeat them. Unfortunately they were often successful at driving phony smears into the public arena. Even though the stories were invariably refuted after investigation, by the time each smear was refuted many, many more were circulating. After a while people began to believe "where there's smoke there's fire."

The Phony Solyndra Solar Scandal

By Dave Johnson for Campaign for America's Future

Well here's a surprise: conservatives and oil interests are pushing deceptive and destructive stories about President Obama and clean energy. Imagine that! Their intent (as always) is to turn people against President Obama, clean energy, national energy policy, stimulus to help the economy, and government in general.It's what they do. Here is some information to help you push back on the latest whipped-up, anti-green, anti-government, anti-Obama "scandal."

Solyndra

Solyndra was a startup solar-power equipment manufacturer based in Fremont, California that went bankrupt at the end of August. The company's solar collectors used a special tubular internal design that let it collect light from all directions, and were made with a copper-indium-gallium-diselenide (CIGS) thin film that avoided using then-expensive silicon. It was one of several companies that received assistance from the government, in an attempt to push back on China's strategic targeting of green-energy manufacturing.

The company, partly backed by the conservative Walton family had received a loan guarantee from the Department of Energy. The loan, which was originally pushed by the Bush administration, was 1.3% of the DOE portfolio.

EPI Reports Clarify Economic Impact of New EPA Rules as House Begins Debates on Regulations

This material was published by the Economic Policy Institute.

The Combined Effect of the Obama EPA Rules, the only comprehensive tally of the combined costs and benefits of the new major Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules, debunks arguments that their cumulative impact would harm the struggling economy.  The paper, by Economic Policy Institute (EPI) Director of Regulatory Policy Research Isaac Shapiro, released today by EPI, shows the regulations formulated by the Obama Administration will be of tremendous benefit to public health, and the combined compliance cost of the rules – both finalized and proposed – amounts to only about 0.1 percent of the economy, and thus are not a significant factor in the overall economy’s direction. 

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, among others, has characterized many of these new EPA rules as “regulatory burdens to job creators” and has scheduled a series of votes, beginning this week, aimed at halting them. This latest research from EPI explains that this characterization of these rules is inaccurate.  EPI’s research finds that the dollar value of the benefits of the major rules finalized or proposed by the EPA so far during the Obama administration exceeds the rules’ costs by an exceptionally wide margin. Health benefits in terms of lives saved and illnesses avoided will be enormous.  EPI also finds that the costs of all finalized and proposed rules total to a tiny sliver of the overall economy, suggesting that fears that these rules together will deter economic progress are unjustified.  

House Continuing Resolution Puts Brakes on Clean Vehicle Jobs Program - States Need Investments and Jobs from Projects

By Daniel J. Weiss

This material was published by the Center for American Progress.

This week the House of Representatives plans to vote on a continuing resolution for fiscal year 2012, H. J. Res 79, to fund the government from October 1 to November 18 while Congress debates and passes comprehensive spending bills for all of FY 2012. The CR includes “a total of $3.65 billion in disaster relief funding to provide much-needed assistance to the thousands of people affected by Hurricane Irene, recent wildfires, the devastating floods and tornados in the Midwest and South, the Mid-Atlantic earthquake, and other natural disasters.” This is partly funded, however, by robbing $1.5 billion from the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing loan program. It is run by the Department of Energy and provides loans to auto and part supplier companies to help them retool their factories to produce significantly more efficient cars.

Providing assistance to the families and businesses harmed by recent disasters is essential for their lives and our economy. Unfortunately, stripping funds from ATVM would hurt employment. The ATVM loans to six companies have already created up to 42,000 jobs. Taking some of the unspent funds from ATVM for disaster relief shouldn’t affect these loans but it will make it impossible to fund the 18 pending loan applications worth a total investment of $9.8 billion and cost up to 43,500 jobs.

Drilling Down on Fracking Concerns: The Potential and Peril of Hydraulic Fracturing to Drill for Natural Gas

This article was published by the Center for American Progress.

By Tom Kenworthy and Daniel J. Weiss with Lisbeth Kaufman and Christina C. DiPasquale 

Download this brief (pdf)

A widely used oil-and-gas drilling technique, hydraulic fracturing, is spreading rapidly to develop vast reserves of natural gas trapped in deep underground shale formations. Hydraulic fracking, however, is coming under more rigorous oversight by the press and state and federal agencies because of its contribution to air and water pollution. This attention is welcome, both to ensure that health and safety will be protected if gas is to be more widely used as a cleaner replacement for coal in electric plants and foreign oil as a transportation fuel. We must also more accurately measure carbon dioxide and other pollution from the combustion of gas compared to coal and oil.

This issue brief explores the ecological and economic issues of “fracking,” as it is increasingly coming to be known in the areas of the country where natural gas is tapped due to the technology. Cutting to the chase, our conclusion is this—hydraulic fracturing needs to be done carefully and be well-monitored, with particular attention paid to the full scope of carbon dioxide released into our atmosphere to gauge accurately the consequences of global warming due to the expanded use of natural gas.

What is fracking and what does it do and cause?

Not so long ago, the subject of hydraulic fracturing of oil and gas wells to stimulate production from deep rock formations was largely the province of petroleum engineers, drilling companies, and a small number of environmental activists.

Confronting New Saudi Realities:Time to Stop Sticking Our Heads in the Arabian Sands

This article was published by the Center for American Progress.

By Kate Gordon , Brian Katulis 

The popular uprisings in the Middle East are yet another wakeup call on two fronts—the fragility of our world’s energy security and the inherent structural weakness in Middle East governments that lack popular legitimacy. While all eyes are on Libya and the growing threat of civil war, the coming eye of the storm may be Saudi Arabia, a critical player in the geopolitics of energy currently on the State Department travel warning list as a “dangerous and unstable” country.

To safeguard U.S. national security interests, the Obama administration needs to develop a forward-looking strategy that helps Saudi Arabia usher in a pragmatic political transition while offering continued support to ensure internal stability. These steps should include measures to move the authoritarian kingdom toward greater democracy, combined with efforts to help both our nation and Saudi Arabia diversify away from heavy over-reliance on oil and toward greater use of renewable and more efficient energy use. Easier said than done, of course, but it is not only possible but essential given the new realities of the Middle East.

Race to the Bottom - Gov. Walker Assaults Jobs, Innovation, and Clean Energy in Wisconsin

This article was published by the Center for American Progress.

By Kate Gordon 

Newly elected Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker held an event called “Wisconsin is Open for Business” the day he was inaugurated. But every move the governor makes shows him to be an antibusiness, anti-innovation politician intent on running the state into the ground.

Let’s take clean energy. Clean energy industries offered a glimmer of hope during the past two years in the midst of a national recession that has hit the Midwest particularly hard. In Michigan, for example, total private employment dropped 5.4 percent from 2005-2008, while during the same period employment increased by 7.7 percent among the state’s 358 “green” firms. Michigan’s new governor, Rick Snyder, recognized the growth potential of these industries when he ran on a 10-point plan that emphasized the need to invest in clean energy sectors such as advanced batteries.

In Ohio, too, the green writing is on the wall. New Gov. John Kasich initially sounded off against clean energy, running on a platform that included rolling back the state’s renewable energy standard. But he reversed this position soon after his election when multiple business leaders told him how important green industries were in the Toledo area in particular. The city, which ranked in the bottom 10 by per capita income in 2000, has seen a renaissance as a hub for solar innovation and production. Over 6,000 individuals are employed in these industries in Toledo today, and the city is home to several major solar panel exporters including First Solar and Xunlight.

Big Oil's Lust for Tax Loopholes: Oil Prices and Profits Rise While Big Oil Defends Its Tax Loopholes

This article was published by the Center for American Progress.

By Daniel J. Weiss 

Oil prices are high and rising at an alarming pace. After hitting a low of $38 per barrel in January 2009, the price of oil doubled to $76 per barrel just a year later. By January 2011, prices rose another 14 percent, and the average barrel now costs around $87. And there is little reason to believe this will change anytime soon, as political instability in the Middle East may cause prices to rise even further. As oil prices rise, so do Big Oil company profits. But even with their cash registers overflowing with dollars from struggling families, Big Oil is mobilizing to defeat President Obama's proposal to invest $4 billion annually in clean energy programs by ending unnecessary tax loopholes for this highly profitable industry.

The big five oil companies—BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, and Shell—made a total profit of nearly $1 trillion over the past decade. The three oil companies that have reported their 2010 profits nearly doubled their profits compared to 2009. (see chart)

New Mexico Supreme Court Blocks Governor From Violating Constitution for Polluters

by: Dahr Jamail, t r u t h o u t | Report

On January 26, New Mexico's Republican Gov. Susana Martinez was dealt a serious blow by her state's Supreme Court, when it ruled unanimously that Governor Martinez had violated the state Constitution when she prevented a rule that reduced carbon pollution from being published as codified state law.

The lawsuit was filed by the nonprofit group New Energy Economy (NEE) and reflects a growing number of claims that Governor Martinez arbitrarily and illegally sought to suppress the aforementioned rule in an attempt to appease major carbon polluters, which made huge financial contributions to her gubernatorial campaign.

NEE's lawsuit also brought to light emails showing deep collusion between Governor Martinez and TJ Trujillo, a lawyer who represents the dairy industry, and who is also a lobbyist for the Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM), which is by far and away the state's largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions. (PNM produces more than half of the greenhouse gas emissions for the State of New Mexico.)

"TJ Trujillo is a lobbyist for sale," Mariel Nanasi, the executive director of NEE explained to Truthout, "He is a lobbyist for PNM. Governor Martinez ran her campaign on the whole idea of transparency, and here she is literally getting an email from an industry lawyer [Trujillo] on one day, and stopping the rules scheduled for publication the very next day."

The revelation of the emails is also troubling because the dairy industry in New Mexico, which Trujillo lobbies for as well, was a large contributor to Martinez in the run up to her election.