Big Oil's tax breaks are un-American

James Mulva, chief executive officer of the U.S.’s third-largest oil company, ConocoPhillips, fired off a news release one day before a May 12 congressional hearing to discuss –– not to decide –– whether Big Oil should pay its fair share of federal taxes. In it, Mulva had the audacity to state that charging oil companies more in taxes would be “un-American.”

That led New York Sen. Charles Schumer to ask Mulva, “Do you think anyone who advocates for ending these subsides is un-American?”

The CEO responded that his company and others would be put at a competitive disadvantage if they had to pay more in taxes. “I believe policies under consideration [would] have a very adverse impact with respect to energy policy,” he said.

I’m sorry, but how much greater a competitive advantage do the major oil companies need? Among the five of them, they collectively earned a whopping $35 billion in the first quarter of this year alone, according to The New York Times. Congressional Democrats want them to pay $2 billion a year over the next decade to help the federal government fill its depleted coffers. Is that really too much to ask?

Big Oil claims that it needs tax breaks to be able to continue exploring new territory in the Gulf of Mexico, which BP decimated last year, and in the Alaskan wilderness. That’s a far cry from what Mulva said during a 2005 congressional hearing. Back then, when oil sold for $55 a barrel, he said the oil companies didn’t need tax breaks. Now, with oil surpassing $100 a barrel and the Big Five oil companies realizing gigantic profits, suddenly they can’t live without them?

Back in 2005, Mulva probably realized that the Republican-controlled Congress would pass tax breaks for the oil companies no matter what he said, so why not look like the good guy by saying they could survive just fine on their own?

A 2008 study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office –– Congress’s investigative arm –– found that the federal government charged among the cheapest royalty fees in the world for the oil it sold to refiners from the Gulf of Mexico. On a list of 104 governments, only 11 charged smaller royalties. You could say the U.S. is practically giving away its “black gold,” which is supposed to be owned by we, the people.