Dems hope for political momentum on repeal of oil tax breaks

Senate Democrats pushing legislation to strip billions of dollars in tax breaks from the largest oil companies said ahead of Monday evening’s vote that they hope to corral more GOP support than an earlier proposal received last May.

“I think we will have more Republican votes this time,” said Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) on a call with reporters Monday. Two Republicans backed the legislation when it received 52 votes last year, eight shy of the 60 needed to advance, while three Democrats opposed it.

The new plan is highly unlikely to win 60 votes in Monday’s test vote, but Democratic leaders are using it to cast GOP supporters of the tax incentives as election-year allies of “big oil” at a time of rising gasoline prices.

This year Democrats have also tethered the plan to the extension of a suite of lapsed or soon-to-expire tax breaks for green energy and energy efficiency – including incentives for biofuels production and wind projects that are popular with farm-state Republicans.

“I have heard from a number of Republicans that extending some of these energy tax credits is a priority for them,” said Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) on the same call. Asked if there are any Republicans who will support the measure Monday that opposed it May, he replied: “We will see.”

“It is my hope that some of these comments that were made to me privately will end up manifesting themselves in votes,” Menendez said.

The oil industry and GOP leaders are aggressively pushing back against the plan. 

The American Petroleum Institute, the powerful oil industry trade group, is running an eight-state radio and print advertising campaign opposing efforts to eliminate the tax breaks. The industry argues that stripping tax breaks for oil giants like Exxon, Chevron and Shell would put jobs at risk and potentially increase gas prices.

But President Obama and many Democrats say the tax incentives are not needed, especially at a time of high prices and handsome industry profits.

“We can end these wasteful taxpayer subsidies to Big Oil and use the savings to invest in clean energy and create jobs and reduce the deficit,” Menendez said.

The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that removing the incentives would raise $24 billion over 10 years, while extending the green-energy and efficiency incentives would cost $11.7 billion over the same period, according to Menendez’s office.

The plan would prevent major integrated oil companies from claiming deductions on certain drilling costs, strip their ability to claim a lucrative deduction on domestic manufacturing income that’s available to a suite of industries, and nix several other incentives as well.