In the face of HUGE profits made by Big Oil it is time to stop subsidizing them with taxpayer money NOW. The American people are suffering. The Big Oil firms and their extremely wealthy executives are not. With the deficits left over from the Bush/Cheney Administration still harming our nation, the easiest way to cut back wasteful government spending would be to stop subsidizing immensely profitable Big Oil Corporations.
Americans are spending nearly $3 billion more on gasoline due to higher gasoline prices. And taxpayers are spending billions of dollars in tax subsidies to Big Oil. These subsidies will cost the U.S. government about $3 billion next year in lost revenue and nearly $20 billion over the next five years. The next dollars we spend should go to companies that provide genuinely clean and safe fuel. The costs are too high.
This is what I like to call "Corporate Welfare", but a better term would be "socialism for the rich", because that is what it is, a massive transfer of wealth from the tax paying public to the already very profitable fossil fuel industry.
This is the image you see when you go to the Our History page at BP.com . BP is the huge oil corporation responsible for the massive off shore drilling disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. They use lots of flowers and clear skies in their advertisements. In reality, they are a major polluter who spend only a tiny fraction of their profits in exploring energy technologies that go "Beyond Petroleum".
"Beyond Petroleum" is an Orwellian slogan for what is still almost entirely an oil company focused on making billions every year from dirty fossil fuels.
$16 Million In Lobbying. BP spent $16 million lobbying in 2009. [Open Secrets]
41% Raise For BP's CEO. "Chief Executive Tony Hayward's total remuneration and share awards rose 41% in 2009 on performance bonuses from improved operations which made the company one of the best performing oil majors in the fourth quarter, despite lower full-year profits due to the fall in the oil price." 3/5/2010">Wall Street Journal, href="
That's right, your tax dollars are subsidizing the $16 Million In Lobbying BP spent in 2009. Your tax dollars are subsidizing the 41% raise BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward recieved in 2009. Sure, BP's profits rose 135% in the first quarter of 2010 compared to the first quarter of the previous years, and sure, BP spent more on advertising their greenwashed dinosaur sh!t as they did on exploring clean, sustainable, non fossil fuel energy over the last 6 years, but don't worry! You are paying for it, and your state is cutting education and other necessary spending the public needs so that BP and other huge dirty energy corporations can have your cake and eat theirs too.
The Republican party, of course, is totally beholden to Big Oil. As they cry crocodile tears for Government spending and deficits that they created, we should all remember that they Conservative politicians are fine with redistributing the wealth as long as it goes to the already rich and profitable.
But Democrats are to blame here too. Democrats should be standing up to Big Oil and demanding that these subsidies to very profitable Big Oil firms are ended immediately. If any energy firms should be subsidized it should be the up and coming renewable energy sources like Wind, Solar and other non polluting energy sources that will provide the green jobs of tomorrow. End Big Oil's subsidies NOW!
