How would you like to own a business that’s making money hand over fist, and get paid by the government on top of that?  The Oil Industry is!

People are literally going hungry in the United States, and Republican controlled congress keeps cutting welfare for the poor, yet the Oil Industry gets 4 billion of your tax dollars every year!!!

“…the United States government provide a heavy public subsidy to petroleum companies, with major tax breaks at virtually every stage of oil exploration and extraction, including for the costs of oil field leases and drilling equipment.“-WikiPedia

Now realize the Oil Industry has been reporting record profits for the past few years.  Recently Exxon Mobil CEO, Rex Tillerson, said his company is spending billions to extract new sources of oil.  But wait, if the U.S. taxpayer paid subsidy is supposed to cover those costs, then who’s money is really going where?

On top of the $4 billion taxpayer subsidy, here are a few more tax breaks for the Oil Industry, and its investors:

Enhanced oil recovery credit. Covers the costs to “enhance” a well’s oil or natural gas production.

Non conventional source fuel credit. Tax credit for production of “qualified” fuels such as oil shale, tight formation gas, and certain synthetic fuels produced from coal.

Lease Operating Expense. Covers the day to day costs involved with the operation of a well, and re-entry, or re-work, of an existing producing well.

Intangible Drilling Costs. Labor, drilling rig time, drilling fluids etc.

Intangible Completion Costs. Labor, completion materials, completion rig time, fluids etc.

Depletion Allowance. Investors in a producing well are allowed to shelter some of the gross income derived from the sale of that oil/gas.  Generally 15% of the well’s annual production can be sheltered from income tax.

So don’t feel sorry for the A-holes!