Date: 2008-02-27
Speaker: GENE GREEN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. Ive always believed as a Nation we should wean ourselves from our dependence on fossil fuels and invest in the energy of the future. However. I also believe we must promote the technologies of tomorrow in a way that will benefit. not harm. our constituents and our longterm energy security. Today. the House is making its fourth attempt this Congress to pass a renewable energy tax package. H.R. 5351. I supported the first attempt last January. H.R. 6. even though I feared it could reduce incentives for domestic production. Every House package since includes a new or different combination of revenue raisers that target the energy industry and extract billions more than prior versions. If Congress singles out one industry for billions of dollars. you cannot go back for more and expect enough gasoline for our cars and fuel to heat and cool our homes. Compared to the original H.R. 6. H.R. 5351 includes $17.6 billion in new taxes on the energy industry. Thats an increase of over $10 billion in just 1 year. House debates on these measures have been filled with misinformation and unwillingness to review the facts. If Congress took a moment to inject objective analysis in the debate. we could see that the profit margins of energy industries are in line. with and. in many cases. below that of other industries. For every dollar of sales in the third quarter of 2007. the oil and natural gas industry earned 7.6 cents in profit margin. compared to 21.6 cents for the beverage and tobacco industry. 18.8 cents for the pharmaceutical industry. 14.6 cents for the electrical equipment industry. and 14.5 cents for the computer equipment industry. Again. nationwide. all manufacturing companies. excluding the struggling automotive industry. earned 9.2 cents" per dollar of sales. as compared to energy that was 7.6. So there may be great profits in it. but there are also great profits in other corporations. . So are the profits of the energy industry disproportionate with most U.S. industries? Clearly the answer is no. If you evaluate industry tax contributions. we would see that companies are paying more than their fair share and growing the numbers in the coffers of State. Federal and local governments. In 2006 the effective tax rate for the top energy companies was 37 percent. more than the top corporate tax rate of 35 percent. Between 2004 and 2006. the total current incothe taxes paid by the 27 top energy companies nearly doubled. nearly doubled in 2 years. growing from $44 billion to $81 billion. So we do have a progressive tax. and it has doubled with the profits. Recently. the amount that ExxonMobil. a frequent target of criticism. paid in U.S. taxes actually exceeded their U.S. earnings by $18.7 billion. So ExxonMobil is paying a lot of taxes. And Im not so sure that ExxonMobil or Chevron or ConocoPhillips. or any of the energy industry. if they pay more taxes in this bill. that it will actually not go back to the bottom line that were already paying at the pump. or to pay to heat and cool our homes. I wish I could tell you theyre going to take it out of their profits. but theyre not required to do that. They could just raise prices. and so well see even more price increases. Despite these figures. no industry is as heavily scrutinized as Americas oil and natural gas companies. Thats probably because most of the production in our country comes from Texas. Louisiana. Mississippi. Alabama and Alaska. Most States dont want it. But they always want their lights to be turned on and their cars to be filled up. Whats most concerning is we continue to move tax packages that target this industry and expect different results. The Senate has twice failed to reach cloture on these provisions. and the President continues to issue veto threats. Were debating press releases and not actually legislating. We did legislate last January and we had a tax package that passed this House with only four negative democratic votes. But since then weve had problems with it. Its time we get serious about our renewable energy and conservation policy. Lets put rhetoric aside for a moment and find a way to move forward on a renewable energy package that can actually become law without jeopardizing our energy security. Mr. Speaker. I have always believed that as a Nation we should wean ourselves from our dependence on fossil fuels and invest in the energy of the future. However. I also believe we must promote the technologies of tomorrow in a way that will benefit. not harm. our constituents and our long term energy security. Today. the House will make its fourth attempt this Congress to pass a renewable energy tax package with H.R. 5351. I supported the first attempt in January of last yearH.R. 6--even though I feared it could reduce incentives for domestic production. Every House package since includes a new or different combination of revenue raisers that target the energy industry and extract billions more than prior versions. If Congress singles out one industry for billions of dollars. you cannot go back for more and expect enough gasoline in our cars and fuel to heat and cool our homes. Compared to the original H.R. 6. H.R. 5351 includes $17.6 billion in new energy taxes on U.S. companies. Thats an increase of over $10 billion in 1 year. House debates on these measures are filled with misinformation and an unwillingness to review the facts. If Congress took a moment to inject objective analysis into this debate. we would see that the profit margins of energy companies are in line with. and in many cases. below that of other industries. For every dollar of sales in the third quarter of 2007. the oil and natural gas industry earned 7.6 cents in profit margin. Compare this to the: 21.6 cents earned by the beverage and tobacco industry. 18.8 cents for the pharmaceutical industry. 14.6 cents for the electrical equipment industry. and 14.5 cents for the computer equipment industry. Nationwide. all manufacturing companiesexcluding the struggling automotive industryearned 9.2 cents per dollar of sales. So are the profit margins of the energy industry disproportionate from most U.S. industries? Clearly. the answer is "no." If we evaluate industry tax contributions. we would see that companies are paying more than their fair share and growing the coffers of Federal. State. and local governments. In 2006 the effective tax rate for the top energy companies was 37 percent. more than the top U.S. corporate income tax rate of 35 percent. Between 2004 and 2006. the total current income taxes paid by the top 27 energy companies nearly doubled. growing from $44 billion to over $81 billion. Recently. the amount that ExxonMobil. a frequent target of criticism. paid in U.S. taxes actually exceeded their U.S. earnings by $18.7 billion. Thats right. They paid more in U.S. taxes than they earned in the U.S. Despite these figures. no industry is as heavily scrutinized as Americas oil and natural gas companies. Whats most concerning is that we continue to move tax packages that target the energy industry and expect different results. The Senate has failed twice to reach cloture on these provisions and the President continues to issue veto threats. This is debating press releases and not legislation. Its time to get serious about our renewable energy and conservation policy. Lets put rhetoric aside for one moment and find a way forward to support a renewable energy package that can actually become law and wont jeopardize our energy security. Our Nation and our constituents deserve that opportunity.