Posted on 05/13/2011 4:31:29 AM PDT by IbJensen
(CNSNews.com) - A U.S. senator -- a Democrat – is taking a strong stand against a bill introduced by a fellow Democrat that would end energy subsidies for big oil companies.
In a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday, Sen. Mary Landrieu, from the oil-producing state of Louisiana, said the bill introduced by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) targets an industry that supports 9.2 million jobs and contributes more than 7.7 percent to U.S. gross domestic product.
Ending energy subsidies for oil and gas companies, she said, will not reduce gas prices, but it will eliminate jobs.
Landrieu also took a swipe at states such as Michigan that produce no energy of their own: "There are a lot of states that don't produce, don't conserve, aren't efficient, and all they want to do is yell about high gas prices," she said.
“I’ll tell you, if we passed a law that said every state in America had to produce the energy it needed, we’d have an energy policy all right,” Landrieu said.
“Just like in the old days, if you wanted food, you produced it. Every state in America, all 50, if you consume energy, you need to produce something. You can produce it by wind, you could produce it by hydro, you could produce it by nuclear, you could stop driving all your automobiles and everybody walk. You could give everybody a bicycle -- we don’t care.”
Landrieu noted that Louisiana, on the other hand, is doing a great job in providing for itself:
"We produce enough energy for everybody in our state, what we need -- and we export it to everyone else in America that needs it. And what do we get? We get bills like this (the Menendez bill) that go after, directly, the big companies in our state, that work in our states, to somehow put them in a position to make them feel like they're not really good companies, they're not American companies, they don't pay tax, they get all these subsidies. I'm going to read into the record what taxes they pay. It's going to surprise you. And then on top of that, we get moratoriums. We get 'permitoriums.' We can't even drill for the oil we have. We can't even look for the oil we might have."
Sen. Landrieu said her constituents ask her -- since Louisiana produces so much energy for the country -- why are Louisianans paying $4 a gallon for gasoline?
Oil producing states should be helped to produce more, she said: "But we get shut down by bureaucracy, moratoriums, permitoriums, rules, regulations, EPA, refuges...”
Landrieu said U.S. oil and natural gas companies pay more than $86 million to the federal government in both income taxes and production fees every day. In addition, she said, since 2000, the oil and gas industry has invested almost $1.7 trillion in U.S. capital projects to advance all forms of energy, including alternatives, while reducing the industry’s environmental footprint.
As for energy subsidies -- Landrieu said it might surprise American taxpayers to know that of the $16.6 billion spent on U.S. energy subsidies over the course of one year, oil and gas subsidies account for less than 13 percent of the total, while renewable fuels, such as refined coal, nuclear, solar and hydro, account for more than 85 percent.
“You would think, because of this (Menendez) bill, that the big oil and gas companies are getting all the subsidies, making all the profits, paying no taxes, and the rest are suffering. Nothing could be further from the truth,” Landrieu said.
She has shown her true colors every time Bush called for lifting the drilling ban in the gulf she voted against it. Costing her state a lot of revenue and jobs. Now it's getting back to her.
Democrats are blaming oil companies for the high prices of oil. Today I watched the hearing they had with the CEO's of the five big oil companies wherein they accusing the companies for making too much in profits this year. Oil companies can't do anything with their profits because they can't "Drill". If they could drill they could invest the profits in equipment, hire workers and invest in developing technologies.
I don’t think she is up for reelection until 2014. By then she might have switched party’s.
“Just like in the old days, if you wanted food, you produced it. Every state in America, all 50, if you consume energy, you need to produce something. You can produce it by wind, you could produce it by hydro, you could produce it by nuclear, you could stop driving all your automobiles and everybody walk. You could give everybody a bicycle — we don’t care.”
ed schultz, randi rhodes, and the rest will choke on these words
I got some of the sound bites from the hearing courtesy of Rush.
Oil companies do not get subsidies.
Oil companies paid in taxes, exactly what they received in profits.
Oil Companies appear to have a spine.
Oil Company execs before congress are not gong to just lay down and take it.
The hearings need to be more available to the public.
As for Mary L. pure dem through and through. I agree with the premise that she has permission...
How many states would begin to produce energy if it weren't for the restrictions imposed? Mary is trying to make senses, but is missing the real point - while some states would refuse, many would love to increase energy, lower costs, and create the jobs that go with it. Typical leftists tunnel vision while thinking she is moving to the right to enhance her chances.
We need less federal government, more state sovereignty. Allow the states to be more independent, produce their own goods as they see fit and break the shackles that tie them to the central bureaucracy in Washington DC.
If the ‘Rats had their way all 57 States would be Non-Energy-Producing States.
The heir of a perpetual and well-sheltered family fortune of Billions gleaned from his geat-grandfather's business...
STANDARD OIL
lecturing oil company executives about “shared sacrifice”
Got to marvel at how stupid he is, aside from his patrician arrogance
Obviously the Rockefeller gene pool has been greatly diluted
No, she's a RAT.
That mascot was never a donkey, it was always a JACKASS!
Why do we continue to let the left run the debate on this? The oil companies do not get subsidies, they get tax breaks!
Leftists and ‘rats believe that all wealth and resources belong to the collective,
so anything that allows another entity besides the government (or, more accurately, “the ruling class”) to control wealth or resources is a “gift” to that entity from the collective.
Now, when you present this worldview to a leftist (and I have), they’ll deny it (and they did). And then, in the next breath, they’ll affirm what you just said, but in phraseology that sounds more altruistic.
When I challenged “my” lib on the difference between what I asserted and what she just stated, she said - “It sounds so mean when you say it.”
It's what RATS do for a living. Is she just finding this out now?
Pray for America
Regardless of Mary’s motives, it’s refreshing to get these comments out into the discussion. She did help expose Jay Rockefeller’s idiocy.
“By then she might have switched party’s.”
She is definitely not welcome. When you have a brother who is a democtrat mayor a father who was in LBJ’s cabinet you can’t get the stink off. She would be a new super strain of the RINO virus.
Indeed. Of course liberals never let little things like facts get in the way of a good story.
Make no mistake, Sen. Landrieu is an avowed socialist who voted to impose 0bamacare upon us. Any "opposition" she may claim to have on raising taxes on oil companies is just smoke and mirrors. She is a socialist to the core.
Louisiana is doing a great job producing everything it needs?
Really? Did that happen after Katrina and the rats running the state screamed bloody murder for the federal government to save it and provide instant housing, food, and water at no cost to the state?
What will her tune be this time next week when NOLA is dealing with the worst spring flooding since the 1920’s?
I don’t see “Heck of a job you’re doing Baracky” sending FEMA trailers to LA yet.
>>>But subsidies sound so much more sinister to the proletariat.
That can work the same for conservatives. Look at the language used on this forum when discussions of the ethanol tax breaks come up. Suddenly it’s all about the evil ethanol subsidies. I’m not a supporter of the ethanol programs, but just pointing out that one man’s subsidy is another man’s tax break.
I guess the Kennedy mentality is alive and well in Louisiana. Voting for a last name that signifies political corruptness vs. voting for rationality, Louisiana deserves what they vote for. I guess "bacon" spread out to the fortunate cronies are more important then jobs.
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