20-03-2012

AFPM asks Obama for fair treatment and to stand up for American workers

The American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers calls on President Obama to stop singling out the oil and natural gas sectors to pay additional taxes not paid by other industries.

“The American public should ask President Obama if he stands up for American companies and workers, or if he stands up for OPEC? Raising taxes on domestic energy companies and American fuel manufacturers only puts American businesses and workers at a disadvantage to foreign cartels and state-owned oil companies. The administration’s anti-fossil fuel policy is contributing to refinery closures and is putting thousands of Americans out of work,” said AFPM President Charles T. Drevna. “The American dream should represent freedom, hard work and success, however, today winners are penalized and losers are propped up and subsidized.”

The current administration has regularly called to end tax deductions to the oil and gas industries that every other American business receives, while these same calls are not heard for other industries that are given tax breaks, subsidies and tax write-offs. A recent example includes a major movie studio that is expected to report an operating loss of between $80 million and $120 million for producing a movie that failed at the box office.

“While I don’t begrudge the movie studio for writing off their losses, the American tax system allows such actions; nor do I resent their success, but I do take umbrage with the constant attacks by the current administration on the oil and gas industries,” continued Drevna.

The oil and natural gas sector, as a whole, supports more than 9 million jobs and pays more than $31 billion a year in taxes to the federal government, more than any other industry.

Drevna continued, “The industry is not asking to receive subsidies like other energy forms receive, it simply wants the right to maintain the same type of tax deductions that every other American business receives. Favoring one form of energy over another gives foreign competitors an unfair advantage, endangers American jobs and make America more reliant on foreign energy.”