June 03, 2010
Obama Wants Oil Tax Breaks Ended
Published in Congress Daily
President Obama today called for an end to tax breaks enjoyed by oil companies to help speed the country's transition to clean energy, even as he said oil exploration will still be necessary and will be increasingly risky.
"The time has come to aggressively accelerate that transition," he said at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. That effort, he added, means "rolling back billions of dollars in tax breaks to oil companies so we can prioritize investments in clean energy research and development."
He acknowledged that he does not have the votes he needs to pass an energy and climate bill in Congress, but he vowed to keep fighting until he does, "finally putting a price on carbon pollution."
"The votes may not be there right now, but I intend to find them in the coming months," he said. "I will continue to make the case for a clean energy future wherever and whenever I can, and I will work with anyone from either party to get this done. But we will get this done."
He said the oil spill fouling the Gulf of Mexico "may prove to be a result of human error -- or of corporations taking dangerous shortcuts that compromised safety, or a combination of both...
