Williams on Schumer on WPT

Texas Railroad Commissioner Michael L. Williams has this to say about Chuck Schumer and the proposed windfall profits tax:

Adding to his list of sins, Schumer now promises to bring back the windfall profits tax. It was a bad idea twenty years ago and it hasn’t gotten any better with age.

A WPT is punitive for no reason and would simply hurt energy production leading to more not less pain at the pump.

Large oil companies are already subject to a 35% corporate income tax rate. According to a 2006 report from the Washington-based Tax Foundation, "the average effective tax rate on the major integrated oil and gas industry is estimated to equal 38.3%. This exceeds the estimated average effective tax rate of 32.3% for the market as a whole."

If the federal government were to take more of a cut of profits, industry would have less to reinvest in future exploration, production, infrastructure and capacity. The old Windfall Profits Tax extracted some $44 billion from the industry that could have otherwise been invested in more production.

The 1986 change to the Alternative Minimum Tax siphoned other millions more dollars from the exploration and production of petroleum and natural gas. Since 1986, domestic petroleum production has dropped by over 2.9 million barrels per day.

Basically, it's bad for gas prices, it's bad for Texas, and it's bad for America. No wonder the Dems are in favor... again.