The poor New Mexico oil and gas industry. They are so picked upon that they are spending millions on TV along with their national counterparts saying that if they get taxed they will just take it out on you.(Don't forget they paid no windfall taxes when gas was $5 a gallon.) I am as weary of those commercials emceed by unemployed busboys as I am of this constant Apolo Ono thing on the Olympics.
Now the acting director of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association is quoted in the Albuquerque Journal as saying "people are getting very wound up right now" and the "Obama administration should be more sensitive." Or what?
This is all because of a possible National Monument designation on
Otero Mesa in Southern New Mexico by the Interior Department. This place is considered to be one thing by New Mexico oil and gas people. A profit center. And they want it. No matter that it is mostly public land owned by all Americans. They always will fall back on the line that (even though all Americans own it) they know better as New Mexican oil and gas guys how it should be used. And they scream once they get these resources that they get taxed to much even though it isn't really theirs in the first place.
Once again the state's republican party, led by oil and gas magnate Harvey Yates, is attacking the Obama administration because they don't bend over like the bush administration.
I am frightened that many folks fall for this paid oil and gas infomercial drivel. It sounds like it makes sense. But it is all a lie.
3 comments:
The problem is with your premise, that if costs/taxes are levied on the oil and gas industry, they will not be then passed along to consumers. Of course they will.
Regardless of whether or not they paid windfall taxes, and even whether or not any savings from any source would be passed along to consumers, the notion that consumers won't end up paying whatever additional taxes that oil and gas producers have to pay, defies logic.
Any taxes on producers are nothing more than hidden taxes on consumers.
They are telling the truth.
Ched
You also miss the point these are public owned resources that the must pay for. Royalties are a payment for what they take from us. Severance taxes are put into permanent funds for the future. Believe me, if they get hit with another penny in tax they will double that and then pass it on. And the idea of higher prices is appealing because it will give more incentive for renewables. All incentives for oil and gas must be stopped right now and shifted over to renewables.
Oil and gas folks are fearful of the proposed cap on carbon in N.M. They are organizing their gang to howl in protest at the Environmental Improvement Board on Monday, March 1.
Post a Comment