While the ethanol
benefits from tax incentives and public policy initiatives, there is
no question that the oil industry receives a greater share of support
from taxpayers and the government.
According to Citizen
Action: “U.S. taxpayers are providing at least $5 billion per
year in tax breaks in the form of foreign tax credits to provide U.S.
multinational oil companies with an incentive to invest billions of
dollars to find and product oil overseas so that it can then be exported
to the United States.”
A 1989 study by the
General Accounting Office found that, since 1968, the oil industry had
received approximately $150 billion in tax incentives. By contrast,
the ethanol industry had received $11.2 billion through a partial exemption
of the federal excise tax and $200 million in income tax credits.
A 1997 editorial in
the New York Times put the real cost of gasoline—including military
expenditures to protect oil interests—at $5 per gallon.
KEY ISSUES
