WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says oil companies are profiting from rising pump prices and he wants Congress to end $4 billion in annual tax breaks for the oil and gas industry.
“These tax giveaways aren’t right,” Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday. “They aren’t smart. And we need to end them.”
Drivers in 22 states are paying more than the national average of $3.91 a gallon. In Alaska, California and Connecticut, it’s $4.20 or more.
The price jump has slowed economic growth and hurt Obama’s public approval ratings.
Exxon Mobil Corp. last week reported nearly $11 billion in profits for the first quarter of this year. Competitors also had huge gains.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he plans to consider Obama’s proposal as early as this week.
The president said money recouped from ending the oil and gas tax subsidies should go to new energy resources and research. He said he refuses to cut spending on clean energy initiatives.
“An investment in clean energy today is an investment in a better tomorrow,” he said. “And I think that’s an investment worth making.”
Obama’s critics say ending the subsidies would mean tax increases that would end up costing jobs.
“The president may think he’s punishing CEOs of big companies, but his plan will hurt the everyday consumer of energy and imperil the jobs of millions of hardworking people in American-based companies,” Rep. James Lankford, a first-term congressman from Oklahoma, said in the Republicans’ weekly address.
