120+ Groups Endorse Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax
(Washington, DC) – Momentum continues to grow for a Big Oil windfall profits tax: Today, in a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, 126 organizations announced their support for a windfall profits tax as a key mechanism “to prevent fossil fuel corporations from exploiting the current energy crisis for profit” and to “provide communities the relief they need now.”
Just before Big Oil CEOs are set to testify in Congress this week, a diverse range of groups joined the call to hold Big Oil accountable while putting money directly into the pockets of American consumers. Signers include consumer advocates like the Consumer Federation of America and Americans for Tax Fairness; climate advocates like Food and Water Watch, Friends of the Earth, League of Conservation Voters, Natural Resources Defense Council and Sierra Club; and faith-based organizations like CatholicNetwork US, Islamic Society of North America, and the Unitarian Universalist Association.
“The oil and gas industry will reach near all-time records for stock buybacks in 2022, indicating that consumer pain at the pump is translating into handsome rewards for Wall Street investors.,” the letter reads. “It is time for the profiteering to stop. We urge you to pass a windfall profit tax to provide immediate relief to consumers and to prevent further price gouging at the expense of the public.”
While millions of Americans are struggling with high prices at the pump, the country’s largest oil companies are bragging about unprecedented record profits and their “best quarter ever,” using their windfall profits to reward their wealthy shareholders and CEOs. It’s no wonder that over 80% of voters, including 73% of Republicans, support a windfall tax on Big Oil.
Already in Congress, a number of legislators have introduced policy proposals that would tax windfall profits, and provide much needed relief to consumers.
Today’s outpouring of support for a windfall profits tax is aligned with the American public’s clear support for the policy. The letter to Leader Schumer and Speaker Pelosi notes that “the latest evidence finds that 87 percent of voters support accountability on price-gouging oil companies, while 80 percent support the enactment of a windfall profits tax.”
Initial reports on Big Oil’s first quarter profit figures make it clear that high gas prices are fuelling jaw dropping returns for executives and shareholders. In a survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Big Oil executives themselves made it clear they would not act to curb high gas prices and instead focus on maximizing profits. Already, five Big Oil executives have been caught cashing in on war, selling $99 million in stock. On the heels of Big Oil’s long record of collaborating with the Putin regime, conservative estimates put Big Oil’s expected potential windfall in 2022 at up to $126 billion.
Below are statements from leading climate, social justice, and environmental organizations:
“Americans need relief from high energy prices, and Big Oil’s runaway profits are exactly where they should get it,” said Kassie Siegel, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute. “This bill pushes back on oil companies’ despicable attempts to capitalize on this crisis. Big Oil has fueled the climate emergency and Putin’s war machine. They must pay for the pain they’ve inflicted on us all.”
“After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, oil and gas companies wasted no time in exploiting a humanitarian crisis to increase their profits while Americans paid the price at the pump,” said Earthjustice Legislative Representative Sara Cawley. “Industry continues to point the finger, obfuscate, and offer false solutions rather than take action to help consumers. We urgently need Congress to pass legislation that will hold the oil and gas industry accountable for driving up prices and provide relief to families across this country.”
“Oil and gas polluters have cynically positioned themselves to profit from pain at the pump and misery overseas. Megacorporations like ExxonMobil are posting record profits, and looking to take advantage of an international crisis to prolong our dependence on dirty energy,” said Food & Water Watch Policy Director Jim Walsh. “A windfall profits tax will not just relieve the burden on working families—it will send a serious message to the corporations that are brazenly profiteering at a moment of international crisis.”
“A windfall profits tax on Big Oil’s war profiteering could help deliver much-needed relief to American families,” said Jamie Henn, Fossil Free Media director. “While we’re feeling pain at the pump, oil executives are making record profits because of the devastating war in Ukraine. Big Oil spent decades working hand-in-hand with Putin and they don’t deserve a single extra penny they’ve made off this conflict. Instead, these windfall profits should be used to help consumers, and especially low-income families, who are paying the costs of high fossil fuel prices. Congress should pass this legislation that will help make Big Oil pay for a crisis they helped create at home and abroad.”
“While the world grapples with the climate crisis and war in Ukraine, Big Oil is profiteering off these disasters at a massive scale. A windfall profits tax would require U.S. oil executives to pay their fair share while returning billions to the pockets of consumers,” said Lukas Ross, climate and energy justice Program Manager at Friends of the Earth.
“Fossil Fuel companies should not be allowed to profit from the Russian invasion of Ukraine – raking in billions of dollars while people are dying” said Zorka Milin, Senior Advisor at Global Witness. “As the US’ biggest fossil fuel companies report near-record profits and seek to exploit the war in Ukraine for political and economic gain, America is getting a wake-up call to end its reliance on volatile and destructive fossil fuels.”
“Oil and gas companies are set to make billions in additional profits from a war they helped fuel while families are struggling to make ends meet. This is pure exploitative greed. The entire industry is rotten to the core and continues to prey on vulnerable communities while it contributes to human rights crises around the globe,” said Seth Laxman, Climate Campaigner at Greenpeace USA. “A windfall tax allows our government to tax these ill-gotten gains and invest all of it in moving the U.S. away from the corrupt, boom and bust, fossil fuel syndicates for good!”
“It’s abhorrent that oil and gas CEOs and their allies are taking advantage of Putin’s War on Ukraine and this humanitarian crisis and raising prices to line their own pockets while families shoulder the cost,” said League of Conservation Voters Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Tiernan Sittenfeld. “We’re proud to support this overwhelmingly popular legislation to hold oil and gas CEOs accountable and crack down on their price gouging, while providing badly-needed relief to consumers. And we look forward to Congress investing in clean, renewable energy here in the U.S. so that the world will no longer be dependent on petro-state autocrats who make record profits off of families' record costs.”
“As Russian atrocities mount in Ukraine, Big Oil cashes in on windfall profits, while our families pay at the pump for yet another global price shock they didn’t cause. It’s time to hold oil companies to account. It’s time to provide consumers relief. And it’s time to enact the critical climate and clean energy investments pending in the Senate to break our dependence on fossil fuels, cut costs for our families and deliver real energy security to the nation,” said Marc Boom, Director of Federal Affairs at Natural Resources Defense Council.
“As the world reels from the tragic war in Ukraine and working families suffer from sky-high prices at the pump, the fossil fuel industry’s wartime profiteering is utterly despicable,” said Collin Rees, United States Program Manager at Oil Change International. “A windfall profits tax is a common-sense, desperately needed tool to combat Big Oil’s deadly greed, accelerate the renewable energy transition, and end the fossil fuel era once and for all.”
"For too long, the oil and gas industry has been able to use the cover of inflation and international conflict to jack up prices for American consumers, '' said Sierra Club Deputy Legislative Director Mahyar Sorour. "We urge Congress to take swift action to ensure that vulnerable communities don't pay the price for fossil fuel industry greed."
###
