As tax reform dominates the headlines, the oil and gas industry is set to keep the bulk of the handouts they receive through the tax code, but they’re looking for even more.

Proponents of the latest big oil and gas subsidy — the FUTURE Act (S.1535) — left out a key detail about the bill when singing its praises last week — that the bill’s benefits would immediately accrue to the oil and gas industry while communities living near oil operations are left to deal with the fallout. The proposed legislation does this by tripling the tax credit to enhanced oil recovery operations that use CO2 pollution to coax more oil out of declining fields, extending the life of oil fields, and profits of oil companies, on the taxpayer dime.

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Why are advocates of the bill silent on this provision? If you’re a climate champion in the Senate,

adding one more taxpayer handout to the

more than $20 billion

that the fossil fuel industry already receives every year complicates the climate-friendly narrative surrounding the bill. And several of the FUTURE Act’s sponsors see themselves as leaders on climate solutions and environmental justice.

But a large coalition of environmental organizations and groups representing American families living in the shadow of the oil industry have sent two letters to lawmakers highlighting their concerns. They outline how the tax credit would lead to more climate emissions, increase threats to drinking water, and unfairly burden communities of color and low-income communities already most impacted by the expanding fossil fuel industry and unfolding climate crisis.

In fact, recent research by Oil Change International found that the expanding the tax credit would lead to the additional production of 400 thousand barrels of oil a day. The increase in drilling would lead to as much as 50.7 million tons of carbon emissions every year — equal to the annual climate pollution from 12 and a half coal-fired power plants.

The portion of the bill that benefits the oil industry would alone cost American taxpayers some $2.8 billion every year by 2035, when the tax credit is in full effect, robbing the public purse of resources that could be used both for creating clean energy jobs and for a just recovery in communities impacted by disasters made worse by climate change.

Besides leading to the release of potentially millions of tons of climate pollution into the atmosphere and pulling billions of dollars out of taxpayer’s wallets, this bill ignores the fact that CO2-enabled oil production presents significant risks to groundwater. Regulations are decades out-of-date, and regulators lack the data, oversight tools, and financial resources to guarantee drinking water protection.

This is an environmental justice issue. People of color disproportionately live by oil and gas development, where pollutants released into local air and water can have severe negative health impacts. In California, for example, 92 percent of the people living within one mile of oil and gas development or in communities identified as most vulnerable by the California Environmental Protection Agency are people of color.

The cost of this bill to American taxpayers, the climate, and communities living on the fence lines of fossil fuel infrastructure is far too high. Further subsidizing the oil industry is a dangerous step in the wrong direction. Climate champions in the Senate should listen to their many constituents who are vocally opposed to this proposal. These Senators should abandon their support for the FUTURE Act and let the Section 45Q tax credits expire, as intended.

John Noël is Clean Water Action's National Oil & Gas Programs Director.

Janet Redman is the U.S. policy director of Oil Change International.