WASHINGTON -- Senator Robert Casey (D-Pa.) said he would introduce legislation to put in place a 50% tax on major oil companies profits' from crude oil priced at more than $50 per barrel, where it has been trading for most of the past two years, said the Associated Press.
The bill, similar to others proposed by members of Congress in recent years, also would eliminate oil industry tax breaks and raise the royalties companies pay to the government for offshore drilling leases.
Casey, speaking with seven other new senators at a [image-nocss] Capitol Hill news conferenceJon Tester (D-Mont.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Jim Webb (D-Va.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.)said family budgets have been squeezed by the rising costs of health care and college tuition and fuel.
The House passed legislation scaling back oil industry subsidies in January, part of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's pledge to push through six high-priority issues after Democrats took control of Congress. Previous efforts to pass windfall profits taxes have failed in Congress, and President Bush has opposed the idea.
Under Casey's bill, money from the windfall profits tax would be used for a new program to help the poor pay for transportation costs. Money from ending tax breaks would fund research into alternative fuels.
"Oil companies have been ripping us off over and over and over again, and this is going to stop," Klobuchar said.
Sanders called it "simply unacceptable" that the price of gas has gone up to more than $3-a-gallon in some places while oil companies pocket windfall profits and lavish executives with multi-million-dollar pay packages.
Sanders stressed that the nation needs to break its dependence on fossil fuels, encourage energy efficiency, and invest in renewable and alternative sources of energy, such as bio-fuels, solar and wind power. Meanwhile, he said, price gouging by oil companies must be stopped.
"Since President Bush has been in the White House, the price of gas at the pump has nearly doubled," Sanders said.
"The time is long overdue for the United States Congress to summon up the courage to stand up to the oil industry, one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington, D.C., and to say very clearly, 'Stop ripping off the American people'.
Asked about the prospect of a Bush veto, Sanders said, "If, in fact, we were successful in passing a windfall profits tax, would the president veto it? I suspect he would. But our job is to represent the American people. If he wants to represent the oil companies and their outrageous profits and the kinds of salaries and compensation they give, that's his business. We've got to do what we can do."
Tester said, Three-dollar gas and $400 million retirement plans for don't sit well with this farmer. They don't sit well with Montana and they don't sit well with America."
He added he has no choice but to use about 3,000 gallons of diesel every year on his farm.
Tester renewed his call for more investment in alternative fuels like biodiesel and cellulosic ethanol. Cellulosic ethanol is made from agricultural leftovers like straw and bark, and does not compete with the U.S. food supply. "If folks like farmers and ranchers had options and they could burn biofuels in their trucks or tractors for half the price, Big Oil would take notice and start behaving responsibly," he said.
The American Petroleum Institute (API) told AP that new taxes would prove counterproductive in light of the tremendous capital investment the oil and natural gas sector needs to meet future U.S. energy demand.
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