Gulf Oilspill
Floor Speech
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Mr. MENENDEZ. Madam President, there is no doubt that the vivid images we see every day of economic and environmental tragedy unfolding in the gulf are unprecedented, if not apocalyptic in nature. They have opened our eyes to the need for a fundamental redirection in our policy and the need for definitive action now to hold big oil accountable. The images are horrific, and they have made Americans realize the dirty fuels of our industrial past and the environmental and human toll they are taking in the gulf as we speak should now give way to a consensus on a real, meaningful investment in clean energy and increased oversight of corporate polluters.
The time has come for change and this Congress needs to stand up for all those families in the gulf, for the rich habitats of marshes and estuaries that are being destroyed. The time has come to make the big polluters pay. But the time has also come to look ahead and plan for a smarter, greener, safer, cleaner future.
No one--no one--can look at what is happening in the gulf and think we should not call big oil to task. No one can look at the images of brown pelicans drowning in a tide of crude oil and not wonder how to stop it and, at the same time, how to move to a comprehensive energy policy that will take us beyond our reliance on fossil fuels and toward clean energy independence. No one can look at Louisiana shrimpers and oystermen, fishing fleets idle, businesses closed, and not feel for those families wondering how they will get their lives back.
This is not the time to shield big oil from full responsibility, as our colleagues on the other side seem to favor. This is not the time for excuses. Two things are clear. Those who are at fault must be held accountable. We need to embrace this tragedy as an opportunity to formulate a new American energy policy that creates American jobs and ultimately invests billions of dollars that we spend on foreign oil at home on clean energy sources. Our friends on the other side of the aisle have said no to that approach. They have said no to energy reforms and favored big oil. They said no to every effort to hold big business accountable for its failures. They said no to Wall Street reform and favored big banks. They said no to environmental oversight and favored corporate polluters. They have said no to even commonsense economic recovery legislation to put people back to work and save the economy from the disaster 8 years of their policies have created. They said no to families denied health coverage and favored big insurance companies. They have also continuously blocked my Big Oil Bailout Prevention Act that would hold BP accountable for damages, lifting the liability cap from the ridiculous $75 million worth of liability--less than 1 day's profit for BP--and lifting it to an unlimited liability since they have created unlimited damages in the gulf. No, they come up with proposals that basically are to protect big oil.
Let's index it to their profits regardless of how much damage they have created. Let's worry about the ``smaller driller'' even if they cause unlimited consequences to our environment. Is there a difference between a $100 billion company and a $10 billion company when both of them create the same environmental damage that has been created in the gulf? I don't think so.
The question is, Whose side do we stand on. Do we stand with the taxpayers to make sure they don't reach into their pockets for big oil's consequences, or are we going to defend big oil? If we were to bring to the floor a bill to invest in a clean energy future and create clean energy American jobs, they would say no to that as well.
It seems to me it is time to say yes to American-made clean energy, yes to the millions of jobs it would create. It is time to also end tax loopholes for big oil companies, such as BP, that are avoiding paying billions of dollars in taxes. They are getting huge tax breaks for drilling activities and revenues, and they are concocting foreign tax schemes, all of which amount to more than $20 billion over the next 10 years.
That is why I have introduced a bill to end tax loopholes for big oil. It seems to me the flow of revenues to the oil companies is like the gusher at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. It is pretty heavy and constant. There is no valid reason for these multibillion-dollar international corporations to shortchange the American taxpayer. They certainly are not using the extra money they get from exploiting tax loopholes to bring down the price of a gallon of gasoline for New Jersey families.
Unlike the gusher in the gulf, we can topfill these loopholes and shut them down quickly and permanently, if we pass this legislation. But my colleagues on the other side continue to say no to commonsense reforms. We could use the billions of dollars and giveaways to big oil for an alternative fuel program. We need to look at the economic potential for modern, safe, renewable energy rather than to take the risk of another environmental and economic disaster. Instead of doubling down on 19th century fossil fuels, we should be investing the money we have been giving to big oil in the clean, limitless, 21st-century energy that would create thousands of new jobs, significantly reduce the burden of energy costs, and help clear the air we collectively breathe. It is time we close those loopholes and move forward on alternative fuels and embrace the future rather than cling to the ways of the past and pay the oil companies to continue those ways of the past.
Specifically, the legislation I have introduced recoups royalties that oil companies avoided paying for oil and gas production on public lands. It prevents big oil from manipulating the rules on foreign taxes to avoid paying full corporate taxes in the United States. It ends tax deductions and giveaways to big oil such as deductions for classifying oil production as manufacturing, deductions for the depletion of oil and gas through drilling, and the deductions for the cost of preparing to drill. That is right. Big oil actually gets a deduction for preparing to drill.
Among other provisions, it recoups royalty revenue with an excise tax on oil and gas produced on Federal lands and on the Outer Continental Shelf to pay back taxpayers for contract loopholes. That would save an estimated $5.3 billion. It ends big oil's abuse of foreign tax credits, saving another $8 billion.
While the Close Big Oil Tax Loopholes Act stops giving big oil tax breaks, it protects refineries and oil companies with yearly revenues of less than $100 million and lets them retain certain tax credits and deductions. It repeals big oil's expensing of drilling costs. In the President's budget, this saved $10.9 billion, but we are exempting smaller companies that would lower that estimate. It repeals big oil's depletion allowance for oil and gas wells estimated to save $9.6 billion. It is time to close these big tax oil loopholes, time to stem the flow of revenue to the oil companies, and invest in smart, alternative fuels for the future.
The fact is, oil companies make up 4 of the top 10 spots on the Fortune 100 list of the largest corporations. In the first 3 months of this year alone, in the first quarter of 2010, the top 5 oil companies made over $23 billion in profits--not revenue, profits.
They can afford to do business without American taxpayers subsidizing them. It is time for action. Millions of Americans are out of work. Families are hurting. Communities are hurting. People everywhere are feeling the pinch, and big oil companies are raking in the profits.
At the same time, some of them, such as BP, are creating enormous environmental disasters in our country. That is why I am proud of my colleagues in the Senate Democratic caucus who sent a letter to BP saying: Put $20 billion down in an escrow account administered independently so we can make sure those in the gulf begin to have the relief they so desperately need.
To my colleagues on the other side, it is time to stop saying no and do what is right, what makes sense, and what keeps us secure. It is time to stop saying no to commonsense policies that end tax loopholes that benefit big oil. It is time to protect American taxpayers by lifting the liability cap so big oil, which made the spill, messed up, should clean up, be responsible for it, instead of American taxpayers. It is time to use those tax breaks from big oil and close them to invest in clean energy solutions that create greener, better, more secure American jobs for the 21st century. It is time to hold big oil accountable and invest in the future.
Those are the choices. I hope we will make the right ones.
I yield the floor.
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