Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) held a press conference on May 13, 2011 to announce legislation he is introducing to end federal subsidies to certain sectors of the energy marketplace. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)
(CNSNews.com) – Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) is introducing legislation in the House that would put an end to energy subsidies to certain sectors of the energy market, including those included in another bill, H.R. 1380, which provides tax subsidies for the production and purchase of natural gas vehicles and certain other energy “infrastructure” projects.
Pompeo said H.R. 267 would put a stop to “all picking of winners and losers, subsidizing particular energies, trying to identify what the next great technology will be.”
“I think it’s a fool’s errand to try to predict it, and I think it’s bad policy when we do,” Pompeo said at a press conference on Friday on Capitol Hill to announce his bill.
He said H.R. 1380 is “the perfect example of a federal policy that’s trying to identify and select a winner” in the energy marketplace.
According to OpenCongress.org, H.R. 1380 is “designed to promote a switchover from petroleum-based fuels to natural gas for transportation.”
The legislation “would provide a variety of tax breaks to trucking companies, vehicle owners, vehicle manufacturers and fueling stations to transition from gasoline and diesel to natural gas.”
The bill also “would provide approximately $5 billion in subsidies over a five year period, though an official budget estimate has yet to be conducted.”
H.R. 1380 was introduced by Rep. John Sullivan (R-Okla.), who is in his sixth term in Congress, and has 186 co-sponsors, including numerous Democrats.
Pompeo, a freshman who worked with the natural gas industry before being elected to Congress, said he believes in the industry and is an advocate of expanded domestic development.
“What we don’t need to do is use our tax code to subsidize them and pick them and favor them,” Pompeo said.
He said that the free market works well and if allowed to work without restriction in the energy marketplace, the best energy resources and technologies will emerge.
“If we will just knock away the barriers, if we get rid of the regulatory impediments, we’ll create the next great American energy,” Pompeo said.
In a May 11 letter to congressional colleagues, Pompeo said that in 2009 the federal government spent $18 billion on energy subsidies.
He also said in the letter that the resolution would specify “Congress should not punish any specific sector of the economy, such as targeting the elimination of the generally applicable domestic manufacturing tax deduction in Section 199 of the Internal Revenue tax code or any other ordinary business deduction.”
“American energy companies are some of the most innovative in the world,” Pompeo concluded in the letter. “They can and will continue to thrive without billions of dollars in government handouts.
“The American people cannot afford the politics of the past,” Pompeo said. “Let’s trust the consumer and the free market to drive energy choices and innovation, not the United States tax code.”
Pompeo was joined at Friday’s press conference by fellow freshman and co-sponsor Raúl R. Labrador (R-Idaho), Michael A. Needham, CEO of Heritage Action, and Grover Norquist, president of American for Tax Reform.
Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) is also a co-sponsor of Pompeo’s bill, and Americans for Prosperity has also endorsed Pompeo’s bill.
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