U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar is calling on U.S. oil producers to follow the lead of the ethanol and biofuels industries and give up long-standing tax breaks to reduce the deficit. "Big oil companies have enjoyed tax breaks that have produced record profits and American taxpayers have shouldered these costs for too long," Klobuchar said in a Tuesday floor speech in the Senate. "The ethanol industry came to the table and offered up over a billion dollars in savings to reduce the deficit and supported a compromise that is a model for reducing government subsidies going forward. Now it is time for the oil industry to do the same." Last week a coalition of U.S. biofuels producers announced their support for a bipartisan compromise negotiated by Klobuchar and South Dakota Republican John Thune that would reduce incentives for domestic renewable fuel production to the tune of $1.3 billion in 2011.
In her speech Klobuchar urged the major U.S. oil companies to do the same by agreeing to give up tax subsidies the industry has received for decades.
