Obama shelves oil company windfall profit tax after price fall

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: Reuters

President-elect Barack Obama is not planning to implement a windfall profit tax on oil companies because prices have dropped below $80 a barrel, an aide said on Tuesday.

"President-elect Obama announced the policy during the campaign because oil prices were above $80 per barrel," an aide on Obama's transition team said. "They are currently below that now and expected to stay below that."

Oil prices have fallen from a record $147 a barrel in July to under $50 this week.

Obama, who signaled early in his campaign for the White House that he would take an active approach to oil markets as president, had planned to use the revenue from a windfall profits tax to fund a tax rebate for low- and middle-income families struggling with high energy prices.

But the aide said Obama's presidential campaign had already taken the price drop into account six weeks ago. When Obama laid out his economic plan for the middle class in mid-October, revenue from a windfall profit tax was not included because of the price change, he said....

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed2/idUSTRE4B206W20081203

[TomInTib]

1. I thought the threat of a tax would cause downward pressure on price.

The oil companies would practically give the oil away to prevent implementation of a windfall tax.

[theoldman]

2. The price of oil did not drop because they now know Jesus.

The oil companies knew that Bush would soon be out of office. Actually I did not think they would drop the price of gas until after the election. It never was a case of supply and demand until people cut back on their driving. To the best of my knowledge the people in China are driving as much as before. The bottom line is that there was no oil shortage.

[global1]

4. The Oil Companies Were Manipulating The Market Under The Cover Of A Bush.....

presidency and have made untold billions off the backs of hard-working and struggling Americans. That money is in the bank. How much has the run-up in the gas price contributed to our current economic crisis?

So now when Bush is moving out of the WH prices have come down - and why?

- threat of the windfall profits tax
- threat of competing sources of energy; they don't want us to develop biofuels, solar, wind, nuclear, etc
- they want people to continue their wasteful ways; they want Detroit to maintain the gas guzzlers; they want Congress to back off of any more CAFE stds.

They are hoping that we lapse back into our pre $4.00/gallon ways.

However, we can't be fooled into falling for this old trick again. We need to press ahead and become oil independent - particularly foreign oil.

I would even be pro - new gas tax that would use the money raised to help these alternative energies make it to main stream. I'd rather spend the $4.00 that way than give it to the oil companies.

I'm a bit disappointed by Obama backing off of this windfall tax - it seems to me there should be someway he can go back in and recover some of that manipulated dirty *Co/Oil Co money and return it to the people that are in dire straits right now.

[RainDog]

3. so it's okay to price gouge if the economy goes into the shitter afterward?

there's no relation, maybe? there's no problem with exxon's record profits while their boy, Bush, was invading nations and getting America's children murdered for oil?

this is poor policy and sets a bad example. it is dispiriting for any American who wants change to believe in. This is business as usual. Better be careful, President Obama. You have a lot of good faith going in, but you are going to lose it quickly if there is no accountability for the crony capitalism of the Bush years.

[defendandprotect]

5. Love your comments ---

[Pastiche423]

8. As do I

It is very upsetting.

[Phred42]

6. Obama Should make that tax Retroactive and put it in place

[justabob]

7. that is disappointing

What about the HUGE windfall that they already received? The oil companies aren't exactly hurting even at 2.00/gal

[ohio2007]

9. Oil may fall to single digit, warns economist ( congress can then bail them out )

MANAMA: The steep fall in oil prices due to the ongoing economic crisis could result in drastically low oil prices ranging between $15-$20 per barrel or even a single-digit per barrel.

The worst-case scenario will remind us of the situation of the 1990s Asian crisis, a senior economist warned yesterday. Simon Williams, chief economist, Gulf markets at HSBC, in a briefing titled “Shelter from the Storm,” held yesterday at the Ritz-Carlton, Bahrain, said oil was the bedrock of the regional economies.

“The Gulf is still digesting the oil price shock as the shift to a new oil price equilibrium has fundamentally changed the Gulf as an economic story. Here everything is directly or indirectly linked to the hydrocarbon industry, and if falling oil prices touched its lowest then everything will be at a grinding halt.



http://www.arabnews.com/?page=24§ion=0&article=116937&d=3&m=12&y=2008

[frylock]

10. change you can believe in..

serious wtf?

[FriendlyReminder]

11. Tax 'em anyway, lord knows they have the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[Truth Teller]

12. Someone needs to compile a list of this stuff

It's getting ridiculous.

[unkachuck]

13. put the tax....

....in place anyway....and have it kick in automatically when gas at the PUMP, (not a barrel of oil), reaches a certain price....

....this way congress won't get cold feet trying to do something two months before the next election when big-oil jacks the price of a gallon of gas over $4.00....