Reid backs Obama call to end oil industry tax breaks

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) backs President Obama’s proposal to cut oil industry tax incentives worth an estimated $36.5 billion over a decade, a spokesman for Reid said Tuesday.

“Reid supports the White House's effort to repeal oil industry tax breaks, especially since those tax breaks do little to create jobs and rapidly develop clean and renewable domestic fuels production to make us more secure,” spokesman Jim Manley said in an email exchange.

But Manley declined to say whether Reid will seek to repeal the tax breaks in energy legislation this year, citing the Finance Committee’s jurisdiction over tax policy.

Obama’s fiscal year 2011 budget proposal would end several incentives, such as write-offs for certain drilling expenses and the industry’s ability to claim a lucrative tax break for domestic manufacturing.