Reader Shares Views Taxing Oil and Gas Industries

Dear Editor,

President Obama and his allies have long since declared open season on the oil and gas industry. They charge that these companies rake in huge profits but don’t pay their fair share to promote economic growth. That’s simply false. As a resident of Louisiana and daughter of petroleum engineer, I’m well aware of the tax and the regulation increases bestowed on the oil and gas industry year after year.

The charge that oil and gas companies don’t contribute to our economy is groundless. These businesses support millions of jobs — many right here in Louisiana — and when other industries went to the federal government for bailouts a few years back, so-called “Big Oil” was still putting tax revenue into the U.S. Treasury.

Today oil and gas companies pay tax rates higher than nearly every other sector — and effective rate of more than 41 percent compared to an average of 26.5 percent throughout the S&P industrial index. Critics also omit that oil and gas companies put a good part of their profits to work in our economy. A report by the Progressive Policy Institute positions energy businesses at the top of its list of “investment heroes” with more than $36 billion invested throughout our country in 2011.

Those who blame oil and gas businesses for not doing more to spur the economy should look instead at this administration’s failed energy policies. They put our country’s energy security and economic stability at risk every day.

Emily Davenport

Baton Rouge

Short URL: http://www.jenningsdailynews.net/?p=13595

Posted by Graphic Designer 2 on Aug 31 2012. Filed under Letters to the Editor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.