The US House of Representatives has passed legislation that will rescind
nearly 14 billion US dollars in tax breaks and subsidies for oil drillers and
reserve the money to develop alternative energy projects and conservation
technologies, The Washington Post reported yesterday.
The measure was passed 264 to 163 on Thursday, with many Republicans joining
a bloc of Democrats to support the legislation, said the report.
The passage came despite opposition from the oil industry and the Bush
administration, which said the bill singled out the companies for higher taxes
and could increase the country's dependence on foreign oil, the report added.
The bill will rescind 7.6 billion dollars in tax breaks for oil drillers that
Congress passed in 2004 and 2005 and will add 6.3 billion dollars in royalties
from companies that pump oil and gas in publicly owned waters of the Gulf of
Mexico and off Alaska, according to the report.
One provision is intended to correct errors in drilling leases signed by the
Interior Department in the late 1990s that allowed oil companies to escape
billions of dollars in royalties over the next decade.
The provision, opposed by the White House and the industry, will require
companies that refuse to change their leases to pay a "conservation fee" on each
barrel they produce. Otherwise, under the bill, the companies will be barred
from acquiring additional leases.
