FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:
Thursday February 15, 2007 Barb Flye, Exec.Director
Christy Margelli Comm.Director
No more sweetheart deal for big oil
Coalition and Rep. Conway call for action on bill
to recoup a portion of excess profits
OLYMPIA, WA – Year-end reports are in with record profits for oil industry giants like Exxon, which posted the most profit ever earned in one year by a US company – $39.5 Billion – or $4.5 million an hour.
“While big oil CEOs celebrate a sweet set up and record profits, Washington taxpayers are picking up the tab – twice,” according to Barb Flye, the Executive Director of the 70+ member Washington Tax Fairness Coalition.
“Individuals have to dig deeper to fill the gas tank and heat their homes, and collectively, all taxpayers will be covering the higher gas and heating costs for a host of publicly-funded services and institutions,” Flye said. “We’re paying more for heat at public schools and colleges, hospitals and nursing homes, courts and other government buildings, not to mention the higher cost of running school buses and public transit,” she continued.
Rep. Steve Conway, the chair of the House Labor and Commerce Committee is sponsoring a new bill to recoup some of those profits (HB 2128).
“Exxon alone made $1,200 a second in profits last year. Together, the big five – ExxonMobil, Chevron, Conoco, Shell and BP – raked in over $101 Billion in profit in 2006,” Flye explained. “It’s time to put a stop to this sweetheart deal that allows big oil to charge exorbitant rates so they can post excessive profits,” she asserted, “That’s why we’re supporting this bill to recoup some of those windfall profits through a surcharge on large petroleum companies,” she continued.
The bill would put a 3% Business & Occupations Tax surcharge on the gross receipts of companies that refine or sell petroleum products, and is limited to those corporations that meet a threshold of productivity. The surcharge would go into effect whenever gas prices rise above $1.75 a gallon. “If gas prices remain reasonable and affordable, oil companies are not affected, but if they hike prices to generate excessive profits, they will be forced to return a portion of those profits to the people of Washington State,” according to Flye.
The Service Employees International Union -- an active member of the Coalition -- weighed in today in support of the oil surcharge proposal.
“Our members include staff in public hospitals and nursing homes, as well as school bus drivers, school custodians and public employees, all of whom are seeing first-hand how the high energy costs that bolstered big oil’s excess profits are hurting our publicly-funded institutions,” said Rachel Berkson, Executive Director of the SEIU Washington State Council, “We applaud Rep. Conway’s leadership on this important issue.”
The Tax Fairness Coalition delivered “sweetheart” candies to every member of the Legislature and the Governor, purportedly from the CEOs of ExxonMobil, Chevron, Conoco, Shell and BP. On the box the oil executives ask policymakers, “How do we love thee? Let us count the ways (101 BILLION dollars in profit)…” and urge another year of windfall profits.
Coalition members also gave every elected official a pink card embossed with headlines on big oil’s even bigger profits, which proclaimed that Valentine’s Day Is Over and called for action on Conway’s bill and an end to the sweetheart deal for large petroleum companies.
“It’s a lighthearted way of making a serious point,” concluded Coalition Director Barb Flye.
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