March, 29 2012, 03:27pm EDT
NRDC: Continued Support of Oil Industry Tax Breaks is "Mindboggling"
The Senate today rejected a proposal that would have cut billions in oil industry tax breaks and directed revenues toward reducing the deficit and supporting clean energy programs that could help wean us from our dependence on oil.
Following is a statement from Scott Slesinger, legislative director for the Natural Resources Defense Council:
"The spectacle of the Senate Republican leadership unabashedly preserving corporate welfare for the oil industry - at a time of skyrocketing industry profits and soaring gas prices - is mindboggling.
WASHINGTON
The Senate today rejected a proposal that would have cut billions in oil industry tax breaks and directed revenues toward reducing the deficit and supporting clean energy programs that could help wean us from our dependence on oil.
Following is a statement from Scott Slesinger, legislative director for the Natural Resources Defense Council:
"The spectacle of the Senate Republican leadership unabashedly preserving corporate welfare for the oil industry - at a time of skyrocketing industry profits and soaring gas prices - is mindboggling.
"Rather than continuing to subsidize the richest companies in the world, we should be supporting policies that encourage more choices for Americans beyond the oil industry's monopoly on our transportation system.
"We ought to be supporting the clean energy entrepreneurs and American innovators who are developing ways we can reduce our addiction to oil, decrease pollution and improve our national security - not the giant oil conglomerates who are keeping us stuck in the past."
For more information on why gas prices are high and will continue to rise, see here: https://www.nrdc.org/energy/gasprices/
For a breakdown of who's profiting from our pain at the pump, see NRDC vehicles and fuel analyst Simon Mui's blog here: https://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/smui/following_the_money_whos_profi.html
And for real solutions to moving beyond oil, see NRDC vehicle analyst Luke Tonachel's blog here: https://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/ltonachel/strategies_for_moving_beyond_o.html
NRDC works to safeguard the earth--its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends. We combine the power of more than three million members and online activists with the expertise of some 700 scientists, lawyers, and policy advocates across the globe to ensure the rights of all people to the air, the water, and the wild.
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Noting those decisions on the FISA reauthorization legislation, Ruddock stressed that "today's vote is a victory but follows a recent loss and ongoing threat as that Section 702 bill moves to the Senate this week too."
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