Democrats prepare to quadruple oil tax
This is really bright. Dems what to impose a tax on all oil companies whether they are responsible for the oil spill or not. Why not impose the penalty on the company responsible?
Responding to the massive BP oil spill, Congress is getting ready to quadruple—to 32 cents a barrel—a tax on oil used to help finance cleanups. The increase would raise nearly $11 billion over the next decade.
The tax is levied on oil produced in the U.S. or imported from foreign countries. The revenue goes to a fund managed by the Coast Guard to help pay to clean up spills in waterways, such as the Gulf of Mexico. . . .
Labels: Environment, Taxes
posted by John Lott at 1:29 AM
2 Comments:
How about remove the tax since the Federal Government can't handle this problem? As I understand, the government didn't have their contingency plan that they were required by law to have after the Exxon Valdez disaster.
As the article implies, the real problem is that the economic damages are capped at a flat number, but the question is why that is.
Ok, yes, if the financial liability is too high, they can't insure rigs, but on the other hand, for a company like BP, $75M is analogous to pocket change.
I say the cap should be a function of the financial assets of all the companies involved in the incident, set high enough to mean that they could actually be held responsible, but low enough that the company itself is not destroyed. Something like 80% of profits of the previous year, and next 5 or 6?
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