Imposing a Minimum Effective Tax Rate for High-Income Taxpayers - Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mr. REED. Mr. President, I rise to join many of my colleagues in support of the efforts to stop wasting taxpayer money subsidizing oil executives' huge profits. We need to end these wasteful handouts, reduce the deficit, and develop clean energy solutions.

While the oil industry is thriving, making $137 billion--that is billion with a ``b''--in profits last year, Rhode Islanders are paying nearly $3.90 per gallon at the pump. Working families are being are forced to cut back because of high gas prices. In turn, big oil companies should have their wasteful tax subsidies eliminated. We should be working to fuel the U.S. economy, not the oil cartels and big oil companies. That is why I am a proud cosponsor of the Repeal Big Oil Tax Subsidies Act, which would put a stop to these wasteful tax breaks and use the savings to invest in clean energy technologies that will create jobs, save money for middle-class families, and increase America's competitiveness in the global clean energy economy.
Addressing gas prices and reducing our dependence on oil requires a smart, balanced, and responsible national energy policy. There are no silver bullets, but there are both short-term and long-term steps we should take.

In the near term, we have to be ready to respond to geopolitical events by making it clear that we are prepared to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve if such a measure is necessary because of geopolitical developments.

We need to continue efforts to prevent excessive speculation and speculators from manipulating the market and needlessly inflating energy prices. And I have asked the Commodity Futures Trading Commission--effectively our cop on the beat--to do that and have sought to provide them with the tools and funding to achieve this objective.

We also need to continue investments in smart growth policies to promote mass transit in next-generation vehicles and alternative energy. That is why I have fought for things such as better fuel mileage for cars and smart investments in mass transit. Improved energy efficiency and developing clean energy technologies will help cut our oil addiction.

Working with President Obama, we successfully persuaded automakers to double the fuel efficiency of cars and light trucks. After staying the same for over 20 years, under the Obama administration the average fuel economy of vehicles will be 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016. And the administration has proposed to further increase the standards to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. Combined, by the year 2025, these standards would save 2.2 million barrels of oil a day and save consumers at the pump an estimated $8,000 over the lifetime of a vehicle. These new standards will reduce the impact of future price hikes by weaning us off oil.

In addition to protecting their unnecessary subsidies, the oil industry continues to push increased drilling as a solution to reducing gas prices. I support safe and responsible oil production, and the administration's efforts to decrease our reliance on foreign oil. U.S. domestic oil production has reached its highest level since 2003. The number of oil rigs in the United States has more than quadrupled in the last 3 years, and U.S. dependence on foreign oil is at its lowest level in 16 years. Indeed, net imports as a share of total consumption declined from nearly 60 percent in 2005 to 45 percent in 2011.

When oil companies tap into resources on Federal property, the taxpayers must be fairly compensated and assured it is done safely and responsibly. Therefore, the oil companies should pay their fair share of drilling royalties and inspection fees to make sure what they do is done right. As chairman of the Interior and Environment Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee, I worked to secure an increase in the inspection fees for offshore drilling last year, and will push for the same for onshore drilling this year.

For all the sloganeering about domestic drilling, we know we can't drill our way out of this problem. Even the oil companies admit that the biggest factor in the price of gasoline is the cost of crude oil, which is set in the world market. It is not pegged to U.S. production. In fact, an Associated Press analysis of 36 years of Energy Information Administration data shows ``no statistical correlation''--their words--between domestic oil production and gas prices.

Again, we need a balanced, well-thought-out national energy policy, one that will help reduce our dependence on oil and the amount paid at the pump. What we should not be doing is continuing to give away billions in corporate welfare to Big Oil while middle-class families see their gas prices rise. It simply is not fair. The oil companies that soak up these subsidies are effectively charging taxpayers twice for the same gallon of gasoline.

Mr. President, middle-class families are struggling. Oil companies are not.

I urge my colleagues to repeal these oil subsidies, make clean energy investments in America, and take commonsense steps to get our fiscal house in order. I urge passage of this very important piece of legislation.

I yield the floor.

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