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Tuesday, 02 December, 2008, 00:10 GMT | more >>

House votes to end Big Oil tax breaks



By Upstream staff 

The US House of Representatives has voted to repeal $18 billion in tax breaks for big oil companies to help pay for developing renewable energy sources.

The bill, which the White House has threatened to veto on grounds that it unfairly targets the oil industry, would extend tax credits for producing energy from wind, solar, geothermal, cellulosic ethanol, biofuels and other renewable sources, a Reuters report said.

The measure passed in a 236-to-182 vote.

House Democrats said oil companies that have earned record profits off $100 a barrel oil did not need the tax breaks, and the money could be better used to promote alternative energy supplies for the future.

"It will spur the production of clean renewable energy sources and provide business with the certainty necessary to make long-term plans to build viable and sustaining markets for these technologies," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California.

"We simply must begin to break our addiction to fossil fuels, particularly our addiction to foreign sources of oil," said Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the House Democratic majority leader.

House Republicans argued the legislation would discourage domestic production of oil and gas.

Renewable energy sources now account for "a drop in the bucket" of US energy supplies and will for the foreseeable future, Reuters quoted Louisiana's Jim McCrery as saying.

Republicans also slammed the bill for taxing US oil companies, but not foreign companies that operate in the US.

The Senate must still vote on the measure, but Senate Republicans blocked a similar bill last year. There is talk of adding the House language to spending legislation in the Senate, which would be easier to pass.

Many of the renewable energy tax credits will expire at the end of this year.

Under the bill, energy companies would no longer be able to exclude a certain portion of their oil and gas production income from US taxes and would also have to pay US taxes on some foreign income that also was taxed in the country where it was earned.


Thursday, 28 February, 2008, 10:02 GMT  | last updated: Thursday, 28 February, 2008, 10:02 GMT

Vote: in the House of Representatives
 

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