Big oil is driving the Romney train

 By John McGory

This past August Mitt Romney raised $10 million dollars from Texas oil executives in the days before he announced his energy plan for America.  It is no surprise the plan favors oil and coal over renewable energy sources.

The plan calls for the expansion of drilling for oil and gas along the coasts of the Carolinas and Virginia, the elimination of most federal safety and environmental standards that govern the development of energy resources on public lands and the end of tax credits for renewable energy sources.

The Washington Post reported, “Romney’s plan caters heavily to oil and gas interests, and oil executives are some of his biggest benefactors.”

Big oil is telling their candidate to kill the push for renewable energy.  His plan to eliminate the wind tax credit would cost America, and especially Ohio, California and Iowa, thousands of jobs and cede America’s leadership position in renewable energy to China, Germany and Spain.

Romney will take care of his benefactors by preserving big oil’s $2.4 billion tax credits. This is for companies, BP, Chevron, ExxonMobile, ConocoPhillips and Shell, that made $137 billion in 2011 and over $60 billion so far in 2012.

But that is not all they are going to get.  The Romney-Ryan tax plan will cut the corporate tax rate for big oil, giving them another $2.3 billion.  That is over $4 billion from the national treasury for companies that will have made over $200 billion dollars in the past two years.

Romney says these cuts will lead to lower prices at the pumps for American consumers.  Unfortunately, oil prices are not set by American oil companies.  They are set on a global basis and all these big oil tax benefits will do is line the pockets of the oil barons.

How important is the election of Romney to big oil?  David and Charles Koch, brothers who own Koch Industries, the second largest privately-held company in America, promised in April $200 million dollars to elect Mitt Romney as president over Barack Obama.

Big oil's death grip on our pocketbooks will not end until there is competition for our energy dollars.  This election is about keeping the expensive and environmentally destructive fossil fuel industry as our only energy choice or promoting new energy solutions such as wind, solar and bioenergy. 

Americans will have no one to blame but themselves for high energy costs, the ravaging of public lands and a carbon-filled atmosphere if they allow big oil to put their feet up in the Oval Office for another four-year reign.  It is your choice. 

John McGory is an Ohio Energy Soldier.