More taxes would hurt oil industry, burden consumer

John Felmy, Washington, D.C.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.

Regarding the Las Vegas Sun’s Saturday editorial, “An industry’s tax breaks”:

Claims that the oil and natural gas industry does not pay its “fair share” of taxes are simply not supported by the facts. In 2008, our industry had an effective tax rate of 53 percent, compared with 32 percent for other industries.

Massive tax increases on one of the nation’s largest employers — supporting 9.2 million jobs and contributing 7.5 percent to the nation’s GDP — would no doubt hurt U.S. oil and natural gas companies’ competitiveness, diminish our nation’s energy security, and ultimately add to the burden of every American consumer.

We recognize our offshore drilling operations must be further improved, and are recommitting ourselves to safety and environmental protection.

However, using the Gulf accident as a pretext for billions in new taxes would have a severe effect on our nation, and lead to decreased energy production, fewer jobs and less state and federal revenues. This is the last thing our government should impose as our economy struggles to recover from the recession.

The writer is chief economist of the American Petroleum Institute, a trade association.