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Senate Republicans plan to target the billions of dollars in taxes directed at oil and natural gas companies in Democrats’ tax and climate spending bill by forcing votes on a host of amendments in the coming days that would strip such fees.
Democrats plan to pass their bill, the Inflation Reduction Act, along party lines soon thanks to the last Democratic holdout, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, giving it her blessing.
But not before Republicans use what’s known as “vote-a-rama” — an hours-long process that forces the full chamber to consider changes to the budget legislation — to put Democrats on the defensive on a range of hot-button topics with a bevy of amendments, albeit non-binding.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee Republican, has her sights set on striking two provisions targeting Big Oil.
Through separate amendments, she’ll seek to dispose of a royalty lease rate hike for oil and natural gas drilling on federal lands and in federal waters. Democrats plan to raise the rate from 12.5% to between 16.5% and 18.5%.
Mrs. Blackburn will also seek to prevent the reinstatement of what’s known as the Superfund excise tax on imported crude oil and petroleum products, which is used to fund the clean-up of hazardous waste sites.
Democrats want to reinstate the tax and increase it to 16.4 cents per barrel starting next year through 2032. It could cost oil companies nearly $1.4 million per day, or billions over the next decade, based on the nearly 8.5 million barrels that were imported daily last year. The tax would increase with inflation.
Patrick De Haan, founder of the fuel-price tracking service GasBuddy, predicted the Superfund tax would not “have a significant impact on motorists” on prices at the pump.
