White House supports Senate bill to end 'wasteful subsidies' to oil companies

The Obama administration on Tuesday said it "strongly supports" a Senate bill that would increase taxes on oil companies, which the Senate was debating Tuesday afternoon but was expected to reject in a vote Tuesday evening.

In a Statement of Administration Policy, the White House said it has put forward a plan to cut U.S. oil imports by one-third by 2025 and increase domestic production. "It is also clear that there are much more responsible ways to utilize the billions in taxpayer dollars provided to oil and gas companies through unwarranted tax breaks," it said.

"The Nation's outdated tax laws currently provide the oil and gas industry billions of dollars per year in these subsidies, even though oil and gas prices are high and the industry is reporting outsized profits," the statement said. "Furthermore, heads of the major oil and gas companies have in the past made it clear that high oil prices provide more than enough profit motive to invest in domestic exploration and production without special tax breaks."

The statement added that the U.S. "cannot afford to maintain these wasteful subsidies."

Republicans on Tuesday afternoon argued that oil companies receive tax breaks that many other U.S. companies receive and raising taxes on oil companies would do nothing to lower the price of gasoline.