Climate groups to target 'Big Oil Welfare Tax'

With foes of new energy legislation describing most moves toward regulating carbon as a "national energy tax," backers of the legislation are launching an aggressive campaign to go on offense, and to muddy those waters, with an assault on the tax treatment of the oil industry as a "Big Oil Welfare Tax."

Writes consultant David Di Martino in a memo to the members of a coalition assembled to support the bill, Clean Energy Works:

The other side is on message and determined to defeat a new energy policy with the tired old false attack that climate and energy legislation is a “national energy tax.” What they don’t want anyone to know is that the American people already have a national energy tax – The Big Oil Welfare Tax - in the form of billions of dollars in subsidies to the wildly profitable big oil companies. That’s right; American taxpayers SUBSIDIZE an industry that earns hundreds of millions of dollars in profits each quarter, and turns around and charges $3, $4 even $5 for a gallon of its subsidized gasoline. CEW is planning to launch a targeted grassroots and media campaign to attack Big Oil for profiting from the Big Oil Welfare Tax and highlight their hypocrisy for calling investments in new technology and renewable sources of energy an “energy tax.” We will target activities in the same states where API’s smear campaign ads are running. We will engage real people to call for action on clean energy and climate and to demand that API and Big Oil stop the smear campaign and get to work on solutions for America’s energy future. We will distribute a tactical campaign plan in the coming days but in the mean time we are providing (below) message guidance on the Big Oil Welfare Tax. Please use this line of attack to fend off criticisms of climate and energy legislation as a tax and use it to put opponents of clean energy and climate legislation on their heels – defending taxpayer subsidies to Big Oil – defending the Big Oil Welfare Tax.

Full memo -- provided to POLITICO by a coalition member -- after the jump.



COMMUNICATIONS MEMORANDUM

TO: CEW Groups

FR: David Di Martino, CEW Communications

RE: The Big Oil Welfare Tax

DA: July 9, 2010

The coming weeks will be very important for supporters of comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation. The opposition, in the form of API and Big Oil lobbyists in Washington, are spending millions on smear campaigns and calling on their cronies in the Senate to do everything they can to continue America’s dependence on oil and prevent a new policy that moves us away from oil and toward a clean energy economy.

The other side is on message and determined to defeat a new energy policy with the tired old false attack that climate and energy legislation is a “national energy tax.” What they don’t want anyone to know is that the American people already have a national energy tax – The Big Oil Welfare Tax - in the form of billions of dollars in subsidies to the wildly profitable big oil companies. That’s right; American taxpayers SUBSIDIZE an industry that earns hundreds of millions of dollars in profits each quarter, and turns around and charges $3, $4 even $5 for a gallon of its subsidized gasoline.

CEW is planning to launch a targeted grassroots and media campaign to attack Big Oil for profiting from the Big Oil Welfare Tax and highlight their hypocrisy for calling investments in new technology and renewable sources of energy an “energy tax.” We will target activities in the same states where API’s smear campaign ads are running. We will engage real people to call for action on clean energy and climate and to demand that API and Big Oil stop the smear campaign and get to work on solutions for America’s energy future.

We will distribute a tactical campaign plan in the coming days but in the mean time we are providing (below) message guidance on the Big Oil Welfare Tax. Please use this line of attack to fend off criticisms of climate and energy legislation as a tax and use it to put opponents of clean energy and climate legislation on their heels – defending taxpayer subsidies to Big Oil – defending the Big Oil Welfare Tax.

By The Numbers: The Big Oil Welfare TAX

As Big Oil and their lobbyists work overtime to prevent being held accountable for their actions and a change in our nation’s energy policy, polluters benefit from generous energy tax provisions that effectively raise taxes on average Americans. These provisions subsidize the oil industry with $4 billion in tax breaks and loopholes every year.

Big Oil companies make record profits each year yet still benefit from this Big Oil Welfare Tax Breaks that costs Americans dearly in both tax revenue and continued dependence on oil.

The Republican Leadership in Congress opposes a new clean energy and climate policy that will reduce our dependence on oil, create jobs, enhance our national security and protect our environment. They apologize to BP, protect big polluters, and want to preserve the big oil welfare tax policy that supports oil companies that already make a killing.

Here are the tax provisions that constitute the Big Oil Welfare Tax on Americans:

$4 Billion Energy Tax Benefits Big Oil Every Year: A $4 Billion Self-Admitted Welfare TAX subsidies to the Oil Industry. “Oil industry officials say that the tax breaks, which average about $4 billion a year according to various government reports, are a bargain for taxpayers.” [New York Times, 7/6/10]

16 Percent Tax Break: Big Oil’s Overall Tax Rate Is 9 Percent – 16 Percent LOWER Than The Overall Business Tax Rate. “According to the most recent study by the Congressional Budget Office, released in 2005, special treatment for capital investments like oil field leases and drilling equipment mean that oil companies are taxed at an effective rate of 9 percent, significantly lower than the overall rate of 25 percent for businesses in general and lower than virtually any other industry.” [New York Times, 7/6/10]

$1.8 Billion In Tax Loopholes: Transocean Has Saved $1.8 Billion With Offshore Tax Loopholes. “Transocean — which has approximately 18,000 employees worldwide, including 1,300 in Houston and about a dozen in Zug, Switzerland — has saved $1.8 billion in taxes since moving overseas in 1999, the study found.” [New York Times,7/6/10]

$2.6 Billion In Additional Tax Breaks: Bush Pushed Through $2.6 Billion In Taxpayer Giveaways To Big Oil. “Despite the public anger at the gulf spill, it is far from certain that Congress will eliminate the tax breaks. As recently as 2005, when windfall profits for energy companies prompted even President George W. Bush — a former Texas oilman himself — to publicly call for an end to incentives, the energy bill he and Congress enacted still included $2.6 billion in oil subsidies. In 2007, after Democrats took control of Congress, a move to end the tax breaks failed.” [New York Times, 7/6/10]

$340 Million To Protect Tax Loopholes: Since 2008, Big Oil Has Spent $340 Million In Federal Lobbying Fees. Since 2008, the oil and gas industry has spent $340 million on federal lobbying fees. [New York Times, 7/6/10]

$18.6 Million For The Grand Oil Party: Senate Republicans Have Accepted At Least $18.6 Million From Big Oil. Since 1989, members of the Senate Republican Caucus for the 111th Congress have accepted at least $18,690,814 from the oil and gas industry. [Center for Responsive Politics, 6/4/10; CQ MoneyLine, 6/7/10]