[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 20160-20162]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            TAX BREAK PARITY

  Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, here is where we are. The Republicans are 
holding the government spending bill and tax breaks for businesses 
hostage unless they can attach a rider to these bills to allow Big Oil 
to export American oil overseas to the highest foreign bidder. Ten days 
before Christmas, Republicans want to give Big Oil the biggest of all 
Christmas presents by lifting the crude oil export ban, and they keep 
saying no to long-term extensions of the wind and solar tax breaks and 
protections for consumers as part of the deal. Lifting the oil export 
ban would be a disaster for our economy, our climate, and for our 
national security. We should have tax break parity.
  Let me tell you where we are right now. In America the oil industry 
gets approximately $7 to $8 billion a year in tax breaks. It is 
interesting because $7 to $8 billion is what the wind and solar 
industry receives each year--pretty even: wind and solar; oil--$7 to $8 
billion every year in tax breaks.
  We keep hearing from the other side: Let's have a level playing 
field; let's have all of the above. Well, what are they asking for 
right now?
  Here is what they are asking for. The oil tax breaks will continue 
forever,

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and the wind and solar tax breaks will phase out over the next 3 to 5 
years. This is on top of the windfall which the oil industry receives 
from the exportation of the oil that otherwise would stay here in the 
United States. Under that scenario, the losers are going to be U.S. 
consumers because we will be exporting the oil that is already here in 
our own ground, so that the oil industry can get a higher price 
overseas. It will hurt our national security because we still import 5 
million barrels per day. Can I say that again? We still import 5 
million barrels of oil a day. We still import 25 percent of all our 
oil. Some of the countries we import that oil from you may have heard 
of--Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Algeria, Nigeria. We are still 
importing oil, and we are still exporting men and women over to the 
Middle East to protect those cargo ships of oil, bringing it to the 
United States. We don't have a surplus of oil in the United States. We 
have a deficit of 5 million barrels of oil per day. So that is a 
dangerous policy. On top of that, I will just say that the whole 
ethanol subsidy program in the United States is premised upon the fact 
that we do not have energy independence and we need ethanol to get $1.3 
billion dollars' worth of tax breaks a year--biodiesel.
  Well, that whole program starts to get called into question if we are 
already going to declare energy independence here, even as we still 
import 5 million barrels a day. Our domestic refiners will be hurt by 
this unless there are proper protections built in in the Tax Code for 
those refiners. Otherwise, as that crude oil goes overseas, it is going 
to call into jeopardy the viability of the oil refineries across the 
East Coast, Midwest, and West Coast of the United States of America.
  On the environment, if Brookings Institution is correct and upwards 
of 3 million barrels of oil will be exported by the year 2025, that is 
the equivalent of 150 coal-burning plants of additional pollution going 
up from our own soil.
  Some people question: Well, will that really happen? Let me give you 
some other numbers. The Energy Information Administration says that the 
developing world and its expanding economy are going to require 10 
million additional barrels of oil by the year 2025. The expanding 
economy is going to require 20 million barrels of new oil by the year 
2035.
  What Big Oil in America wants is a piece of that action. They want to 
be able to export into that market, and they will do so by drilling on 
American soil, not to reduce our own dependence upon imported oil but 
to sell it because the price on the global market is higher--much 
higher than the price they could get in America.
  Is that truly a good policy, given what we are seeing about the 
stability of the Saudi government? Well, just look at the governments 
all across the Middle East from which we import oil. Is this really a 
good idea? I don't think so. I think it goes to the heart of our 
national security.
  What happens to the Big Oil industry over the next 20 years is that 
they pick up about $500 billion in new tax revenues; that is with a 
``b,'' $500 billion. They keep their $7 billion in tax breaks every 
year over a 20-year period. That is $140 billion more.
  Meanwhile, the solar and wind tax breaks expire; they run out. The 
rumors are they run out over the wind in 3 years. Well, the young 
generation is the green generation. They think wind and solar are the 
future. They don't think fossil fuels are the future.
  The whole world, 195 countries, just gathered and signed an agreement 
to move away from a fossil era to a low-carbon, clean-energy future. So 
if there was going to be a deal out here, then there should be some 
equality. If you don't take away the tax breaks from oil and gas, then 
don't take away the tax breaks for wind and solar--a level playing 
field, all of the above. Have a competition so that we can know at the 
end of the day--which is what I think is going to happen--that 
renewables are actually the future. It is a tale of two tax breaks: one 
for Big Oil and one for the renewable industry.
  As I stand on the floor, this is still an unanswered question, but I 
do know this: The Republicans are pledging that if their Presidential 
candidate wins in 2016, then in 2017 that Presidential candidate is 
going to take off the books the clean power rules that President Obama 
has promulgated. They are going to review the fuel economy standards 
that push us to 54.5 miles per gallon by the year 2025, which is still 
the largest single reduction of greenhouse gases in one stroke that any 
country in the world has ever actually announced. They are also saying, 
obviously this week, that they are going to allow the wind and solar 
tax breaks to expire. So just as the world meets, we have the 
announcements about what their goals are on this issue.
  I think the world expects more from us, but I actually think the 
young people of our country expect more from us. They truly think this 
is the future; this is the revolution: more efficient vehicles, 
powerplants that have fewer emissions, tax breaks for wind, and solar 
for fuel cells--the future. It is not having 150 new powerplants of 
coal equivalents of oil being drilled for in our country without some 
corresponding, permanent, long-term tax breaks that would offset it. 
No, it is just the opposite. They are saying: We are coming after the 
Presidential election for the reductions in greenhouse gases from 
powerplants. We will take those rules off the books. We are going to 
review the fuel economy standards. We will take those off the books, 
and we will make sure there is never again a permanent tax break for 
wind and solar. That is where we are in the same week that the world 
just met in Paris to announce the global solution to a global warming 
problem.
  So I say equality; I say keep it the same. If you want to keep oil, 
if you want to keep natural gas tax breaks, keep them. But don't take 
away ours; that is, not mine but those who believe in a low-carbon, 
clean-energy future for our planet. The United States must be the 
leader. We are the innovation giant. We are the country that the world 
is looking for in order to find these solutions.
  We passed laws that created this cell phone in 1996. Until then it 
was the size of a brick, and people didn't have one in their pocket. 
Then, 8 years later, a new cell phone came along. By the way, 600 
million people in Africa have them because we innovated; we went first.
  We can do the same thing in the energy sector, but there has to be 
some fair treatment that is put in place, especially when the oil 
industry receives such an incredible bonanza of those breaks here--$500 
billion in new revenues. From my perspective, it is undermining our 
national security because we shouldn't be exporting oil when we are 
still importing it from dangerous places on the planet, and they keep 
all their tax breaks.
  From my perspective, I look at the Republican mantra from 6 to 7 
years ago. It was ``Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less.'' They were 
saying: The more we drill here, the more energy independence we are 
going to have. They are replacing it this week with ``drill here, 
export there, pay more'' here at home. That is their new slogan. 
Everything they had said about why we should be drilling here is now 
made obsolete by their commitment to now ensure that oil gets exported. 
There are two prices: There is an OPEC price for global oil, and there 
is a Texas price for American oil. It is always cheaper here. They want 
to get it off into ships to get the OPEC price on the global market. I 
understand that.
  What I don't understand is how we can leave behind--with tax breaks 
that are phasing out and the rumors that the wind tax break expires 
over the next 3 years--those new technologies that are branded ``Made 
in America,'' such as these cell phone technologies, these smartphone 
technologies that have revolutionized countries and continents all 
across the planet.
  I come to the floor to say I understand why Big Oil wants this. It is 
about as great a Christmas gift as any industry would ever have 
received.
  In return, I hope before we adjourn that we can find a way of being 
more generous--much more generous--to those other companies, those 
other technologies that are the future. I hope

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the promises Republican Presidential candidates are making that they 
are going to come back and take the clean powerplant rules off the 
books--that they are protected because we have the tax breaks. It still 
signals to industries that they are our future and the past is just a 
memory, that there is a new 21st century vision that America is going 
to lead, that the promises President Obama made in Paris on behalf of 
the American people are, in fact, going to be met, and that our 
policies are going to reflect the words the President spoke.
  I thank the Presiding Officer for this time.
  I yield back the remainder of my time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Dakota.

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