Big oil companies say no to funding energy assistance program
1:32 PM Mon, Apr 28, 2008 | Permalink
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The trade group that represents the major oil companies in the United States has again rejected a request by Senators Jack Reed, D-RI, and Olympia J. Snowe, R-Maine, that the companies set aside some of their profits to help low-income households with heating costs. Red Cavaney, president and chief executive officer of the American Petroleum Institute responded to the senators saying that funding such programs is not the role of its member companies. "Having industry step into a government role distorts the roles of both, and, in this particular case, will only serve to mask the longer-term energy challenges faced by your constituents, the industry, and our country as a whole," Cavaney wrote, according to a copy of his response provide by Reed's office. Reed and Snowe sent their request to the API on March 31. They wrote: "Americans are paying record high prices at the gas pump and to fill their oil tanks. Families and seniors across America are struggling to cope with these extraordinary prices. As a result, we are asking you to reconsider the concept of creating a voluntary assistance program modeled after LIHEAP [Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program] and funded by API members to offer low-income Americans help with rising energy costs, both to address this winter’s heating bill and rising transportation costs this year." Cavaney suggested that government regulations that have hampered industry efforts to increase domestic supply of oil and natural gas are partially to blame for high energy costs. "Unfortunately," he wrote, "government obstacles all too often hinder our efforts -- whether it is access to oil and natural gas resources on federal and the Outer Continental Shelf, disputes over pipeline siting, objections to refinery expansion projects, or proposals to increase taxes on industry." Reed said that because of API's lack of interest in a voluntary heating assistance program, Congress should re-examine the tax breaks given to oil companies designed encourage exploration. "We asked big oil companies to voluntarily reinvest some of their windfall profits back into the American economy. Now that they have rejected that proposal, Congress should take a closer look at curbing the billions of dollars in tax giveaways for big oil companies." In October 2005, Snowe and Reed wrote a similar letter requesting that larger members of the American Petroleum Institute create a voluntary LIHEAP initiative. The API also declined that request. 
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