Geithner: Repealing oil industry subsidies won’t hit consumers

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told a Senate panel Tuesday that a White House proposal to repeal roughly $39 billion in oil, natural gas and coal industry tax breaks will not raise consumer energy costs.

“We don’t think they are going to have any effect on prices. We don’t think they will,” he said at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on the White House fiscal year 2011 budget plan. “They have been carefully designed not to do that.”

Geithner spoke in response to allegations about the proposal by GOP Sen. Mike Enzi of Wyoming, a state that’s home to substantial natural gas and coal production.

Geithner said the White House wants to eliminate subsidies that “conflict” with broader administration efforts on energy efficiency and curbing greenhouse gases. He also said that cutting the incentives is part of being “fiscally responsible.”

He acknowledged the administration has a fight on its hands. “I understand that it is going to be difficult,” Geithner said.