Senator Clinton calls for a windfall profits tax on “big oil” to fund energy research
October 26, 2005
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton urged the government to collect billions of dollars in new fees from major oil companies and use the money to fund energy research and help consumers cope with the high price of heating this winter.
Clinton, D-N.Y., told a group of clean energy investors and advocates that a major new push toward efficient use of oil, gas, wind, and solar energy was needed to confront a looming energy crisis.
The recent spikes in gas and oil prices following storms in the Gulf Coast ” have exposed the administration’s policy for what it is: using an umbrella to fend off a hurricane,” she said.
The senator pushed a “strategic energy fund” which she said could bring in as much as $20 billion a year for new research and give rebates or tax breaks to those straining to pay rising heating bills.
Other Democratic senators, including New York’s Charles Schumer and Illinois’ Dick Durbin, have proposed a new tax on the increase in profits seen by major oil companies this year.
In contrast, Clinton never described her plan as a tax, saying her goal is to get “oil companies that have experienced these amazing profits either to reinvest them in our energy future to reduce our dependence on oil or to contribute to a strategic energy fund that will provide incentives for companies and consumers who want to be part of an energy solution.”
A spokeswoman for the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment on Clinton’s plan.
