Irresponsible incumbents are fleecing the American taxpayer
A business tax credit originally put into law in 1980, has been abused by the synthetic-fuel industry to fleece the American taxpayers billions of dollars each year! From 2003 through 2005, TIME magazine estimates the synfuel industry raked in $9 billion in tax credits. Intended at the beginning to help the United States become more energy independent, lobbyists are now spending millions per year perpetuating the scam.
The IRS rule for transforming coal into synfuel--and getting the tax credit-- requires only that the substance be chemically altered in some way. Synfuel plants, flimsy facilities that could be easily dismantled and moved to other locations, use various techniques next to coal-burning power plants. Today about 55 such plants around the U.S. process 125 million tons of coal or, in many cases, coal waste from an earlier mining era. For owners and operators, the whole point isn't creating a profitable new energy resource for the U.S.; it's about collecting the tax subsidy.
Last November 2005, the lobby scored a remarkable coup. Buried deep in a bill called the Tax Relief Act of 2005 (which provides aid for Hurricane Katrina victims and sets new policies for tax-exempt groups), passed by the Senate
on Nov. 18, was Section 559, titled "Modification of Credit for Producing Fuel from a Nonconventional Source." The provision originated as an amendment from Sen. Santorum (Penn.). Sen. Smith (Oregon) had a similar amendment co-sponsored by several other Senators, Republicans and Democrats. Chairman Grassley accepted the Santorum amendment. The bill is now part of Congress's budget-reconciliation process; the odds are that the synfuel provision may slip through, because attention will likely be on other issues.
The power that is wielded by the lobby industry in Washington, DC allows small clauses like this to be inserted into large bills and ignored by our representatives, and ultimately we, the taxpayers. VOID (Vote Out Incumbents for Democracy), and its individual supporters (we, the people), stand against this wasteful irresponsibility in congress. We will vote out irresponsible incumbents this election, and following elections, until our representatives have the interest of our country as their first priority, not the special interests like the synfuel industry.
Source: TIME Magazine
Comments
No doubt about it.
Bought-and-paid-for incumbents will not let anyone pass any reforms that may reduce their power or opportunites for self-gain.
Posted by: d.a.n | February 28, 2006 11:37 PM
Should the word be SINfuel maybe?
Posted by: steve smith | March 3, 2006 10:46 AM