Target: Lisa Murkowski, Chair of U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies
Goal: Don’t give massive tax breaks to oil and gas lobbyists at expense of the environment and the people.
While the US government has been busy attacking and dismantling clean energy initiatives, elected leaders have been hard at work carving out tax windfalls for oil and gas conglomerates responsible for much of the world’s planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. Powerful special interests have long lobbied for these sweetheart tax deals, rewarding representatives who secure them with massive donations. One of said representatives, who has accepted half a million dollars in campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry, has pushed a proposal that would knock down tax payments for many oil and gas companies to zero.
The Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax requires large corporations to pay taxes on a set percentage of reported profits. But the new loophole would enable fossil fuel companies to whittle away big chunks, or even all, of this tax requirement by deducting drilling costs. This quid pro quo deal is just the latest in a widespread effort to reward the fossil fuel industry for its corporate lobbying while shielding it from accountability for the damage it is inflicting on the entire planet.
Sign the petition below to demand a reversal of fortunes that emphasizes financial assistance for people over billionaire environmental destroyers.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Senator Murkowski,
Why have tax wipeouts for fossil fuel special interests been prioritized and promoted within the Senate while millions of Americans – who coincidentally will see their much lower tax cuts expire just in time for the next president to take office – struggle to make ends meet? Why are clean energy subsidies and programs being “phased out” whilst fading, polluting, and won’t-last-forever fossil fuels receive the royal treatment? This nation must invest in the technology of the future (and it must invest in the world’s future) or it risks being left behind.
Don’t make a mockery of the Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax by carving out rig-sized exceptions for oil and gas lobbyists. They must pay their fair share, and they must be held in check…or else the rest of the world will pay the price for their destructive actions.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Wallpaper Flare
