Washington – Democrats on Saturday accused the Republican-led Congress of providing tax cuts to oil companies at a time when the industry enjoys record profits and many motorists struggle to deal with rising gasoline prices.
In his party’s weekly radio address, Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan said “gas prices keep skyrocketing, and in Washington, Republicans continue to turn a blind eye to the oil industry’s activities. … From this Republican-controlled Congress, we hear more of the same: ‘Let’s just drill our way to energy independence, sacrifice our environment and provide big tax breaks to Big Oil,”‘Stupak said.
Last week, Exxon Mobil Corp., the nation’s biggest oil company, posted net income of $8.4 billion, an increase of 7 percent, during the first three months of 2006.
Stupak said the oil industry benefited from $10 billion in tax cuts in last year’s energy bill, but House Democrats want to roll back tax cuts for the industry to help pay energy bills for low-income Americans, small businesses and farmers.
The congressman urged President Bush to investigate potential gas price gouging.
Bush said Friday there was “no evidence” of price gouging of consumers. He has urged energy companies to expand refineries and natural-gas pipelines and invest in renewable sources of energy.
