Tag: taxpayers for common sense

It is a common refrain in this Republican House of Representatives that Congress should not "pick winners and losers" in the energy marketplace. The comment is usually made while debating subsidies for alternative energy. Today, though, Congress may go against the odds to try and pick a winner by voting on a measure that would allocate $25 million to oil shale research and development.

The Congressional deficit reduction “supercommittee” that has been charged with finding $1.5 trillion in budget savings by Thanksgiving could save billions by eliminating tax breaks and subsidies for oil and gas companies, which advocacy groups from across the ideological spectrum support, but energy companies are battling to keep their good deals.

A nonpartisan watchdog group is blowing the whistle on U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton and others in Congress who consistently advocate for tax breaks, subsidies and other giveaways to oil and gas companies.

U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, the Republican who beat out Democrat John Salazar in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District last year, is taking some political heat of late for trying to save $15,000 in federal funding on a mass transit project in the Roaring Fork Valley while simultaneously declining to oppose more than $16 billion in tax breaks for oil and gas companies reaping record profits.

Taxpayers for Common Sense has put out its "Version Three" spreadsheet of earmarks contained in the omnibus spending bill for Fiscal Year 2009. It's an Excel document that can be searched by bill, earmark, representative, senator, state and more! The Colorado delegation pulled down its share of cash, but none of the state's officials ranked among the top earmark getters.