UYGUR: All right. Now, still ahead. Slick tricks. Oil companies are getting billions in tax giveaways, thanks to outrageous loopholes. And you`re not going to believe all of the things that taxpayers could do with that money if things were fair and square.
UYGUR: Today in “Rigged Game,” we`re going to show you what would happen if just one of the eight subsidies oil companies received were to be eliminated. The expensing of intangible drilling costs was the first subsidy given to oil companies back in 1916. According to the IRS Web site, it allows oil companies to deduct the cost of workers` wages, fuel, drill repairs, hauling equipment and, ready for this last one? Supplies related to drilling wells. That`s right. According to this subsidy, they can write off just about anything related to drilling their wells. This subsidy is obviously archaic. It was put on the books back in 1916 when oil and gas companies were in their infancy to help them grow. But those days are long over. They have grown and grown and grown. They`ve made a trillion dollars in the last ten years.
Just the top five of them.
Now, since 1968, this subsidy has cost the U.S. treasury $78 billion in lost tax revenue. That`s 78 billion that could have been in your pocket instead of oil executives` pockets. Now, if we did away with it today, it`s estimated that we would gain approximately $8 billion over the next decade. You know what we could do with that $8 billion? Build about 19 new solar power plants that could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 7.6 million tons a year. Now, it`s been 2,069 days since the last oil subsidy bill was signed into law. And we`re going to keep on this story until all Washington has to admit they make no sense whatsoever.