Time to end subsidies to big oil

John Marchese, Henderson

Monday, Dec. 24, 2012 | 2 a.m.

Congress can save both $1 trillion and the planet by bolstering clean energy jobs and public health protections, or it can bow to the dirty fossil-fuel industry and allow devastating cuts to crucial environmental programs.

Congress is debating drastic budget changes to avoid the “fiscal cliff” of automatic cuts to spending programs.

Big polluters want to cut environmental programs and kill the wind energy tax credit while maintaining their own subsidies.

Also on the table are potential cuts to crucial environmental programs — like the National Park Service and the Forest Service — that will leave our public lands vulnerable.

Congress must not put our nation’s lands, air and water in jeopardy. Instead, it should invest in America’s middle class by ending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent and cutting unfair subsidies to Big Oil, timber and other polluters.

A healthy economy and a robust clean energy economy begin with a strong middle class. Congress must end the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent. The revenue could be used to help working families, support vital services for the poor and programs that protect our air, land and water, and give every citizen a fair chance at the American dream.

Congress should eliminate the $41 billion in subsidies and tax breaks currently given to the oil and gas industry. Unlike working families struggling to make ends meet, the oil and gas industry has made more than $1 trillion in profits in the past decade alone.