Congressman Dan Kildee: Michiganders ‘Sick and Tired’ of Billions in Tax Breaks for Oil Companies at Expense of Working Families

Congressman Dan Kildee (MI-05) today expressed strong opposition to a bill being brought to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives giving a foreign oil corporation a multi-million dollar tax break while at the same time potentially leaving Michiganders on the hook for the costs associated with the spill of foreign tar sands oil in the U.S.

The bill under consideration today would exempt TransCanada Corporation, a Canadian oil company attempting to build the Keystone XL pipeline in the U.S., from making an 8 cent per barrel contribution toward the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund. Currently, conventional crude oil companies are required to contribute 8 cents per barrel to the Trust Fund, but oil sands crude oil, which TransCanada is attempting to distribute, are exempt from such contributions.

In 2013, TransCanada reported $1.5 billion in profits.

“Under this bill, foreign oil companies collect billions in profits while taxpayers get stuck with the mess in the event of an oil spill,” Congressman Kildee said. “Why should a Canadian corporation get another tax break paid for by American taxpayers? My constituents are sick and tired of special corporate tax breaks for oil companies, not to mention also having to shell out millions of dollars in cleanup costs when things go wrong. Foreign companies like TransCanada should get no special exemptions at my constituents’ expense.”

Congressman Kildee expressed great concern with making American taxpayers potentially liable for the cleanup associated with an oil spill, similar to the 2010 Enbridge oil spill in Michigan.

“Michiganders know all too well the devastating and long-term negative consequences of oil spills,” Congressman Kildee said. “Four years later, we are still cleaning up over a million gallons of oil sands crude oil in Michigan waterways from the Enbridge oil spill. Oil companies and pipelines like the Keystone XL carrying oil sands need to be held to the same standard as other oil companies and not get special carve outs to boost their profits and lessens their liability in the event of a spill.”

In July 2010, a pipeline operated by Enbridge Energy burst, spilling over a million gallons in the Talmadge Creek and Kalamazoo River. To date, it is the largest inland oil spill and one of the costliest. According to Enbridge’s recent Security and Exchange Commission filing, cleanup costs have already reached $1.21 billion and growing.

Congressman Kildee has continuously fought to end taxpayer-funded subsidies for Big Oil companies. Last year in Congress, he co-sponsored H.R. 601, the Permanent Repeal of Oil Subsidies Act, which would permanently end taxpayer-funded giveaways to the nation’s largest oil companies. The bill, which has not been allowed an up-or-down vote in Congress, would save taxpayers more than $80 billion over the next decade.