A Week of Action to End Fossil Fuel Subsidies

A Week of Action to End Fossil Fuel Subsidies

The NRDC Action Fund has joined more than 500 organizations from the environmental, faith and public health communities calling on Congress to eliminate taxpayer giveaways to the fossil fuel industry.

In a letter the groups released yesterday as part of a Week of Action, they are urging Leader Schumer and Speaker Pelosi to support the “elimination of fossil fuel subsidies and other giveaways in any infrastructure, economic recovery and/or reconciliation legislative package.”  Organizations also delivered 129,000 petition signatures to members of Congress in support of this action.

Momentum for ending these special tax gifts is growing in Washington.  President Biden’s FY 2022 Budget proposes $120 billion in cuts to oil, coal and gas companies and several legislative proposals – including a package authored by Senate Finance Committee Chair Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and co-sponsored by Leader Schumer – aim at eliminating a raft of subsidies as well.

Representatives Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Rho Khanna (D-CA), Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Andy Levin (D-MI) also joined the groups in a Capitol Hill rally today to kick off the week.

The fossil fuel supply chain generates a tremendous amount of air and water pollution that harms our communities and threatens nature. The burning of fossil fuels is also the primary cause of climate change. Yet, industry continues to produce these dirty fuels, despite the low price of oil and gas and the availability of cleaner alternatives.  Special tax deductions and exemptions distort the market and artificially inflate the value of oil and gas companies, making them more appealing to investors than market forces would otherwise. 

Instead of using public dollars to help generate billions for the industry on the backs of taxpayers and at a cost to community health, Congress should end special giveaways for the fossil fuel industry.  Instead of bilking taxpayers for billions each year, oil and gas companies should invest in a just and equitable transition for workers and communities when it closes out drilling and other activities and stop foisting this series of burdens onto the country’s most vulnerable.

With powerful support in leadership and in the White House, now is the time to end these wasteful, destructive and outdated tax giveaways to the fossil fuel industry once and for all.