Oil Depletion Allowance

[bluestate10]

The USA has a rich history of funding nascent industries. The funding has produced economic benefits as some companies from those industries have grown into giant enterprises. The USA should not support industries once growing companies exists in those industries and in particular when those companies make enormous profits. The oil depletion allowance is an ill advised tax benefit, the benefit effectively has consumers paying twice, first to fund exploration for oil and gas, second paying at the pump or paying a natural gas supplier for energy to homes and businesses. Senator Harry Reid is bringing a vote in the Senate to cut the depletion allowance. My take is the the allowance should be completely eliminated, every cent. I expect that most on DU agree with elimination of the allowance, but the reasons vary. What are some of your reasons? Are there anyone that care to give an argument for keeping the allowance?

[RickFromMN]

1. I haven't done the research, so I don't now how many Mom and Pop (small oil drillers) there are.

For the "big" oil companies, I see no reason to give them an allowance.
They can afford to pay for the exploration. They don't need government help.

I don't think the argument, without the allowance, oil prices will rise.
I suspect oil prices rise to the maximum the market will allow anyway.

I also don't think it's fair, for the Republicans, to want to subsidize
oil companies while they don't want to fund alternative energy research.

In some sense, I'd like to end all subsidies to the oil and gas companies.
I'd like to give alternative energy a fighting chance.

Some may disagree, but I view our wars as wars to protect oil interests.
I would argue, we pay not twice, once with a subsidy, once at the pump,
but four times, the third time with the cost to maintain a large military,
and the fourth time with the lives of our young defending oil interests.

I wish we were doing even more funding for alternative energy research.
I am a fan of the idea of wind energy and solar even as I admit I believe
using these sources of energy is still a ways off; we have to start sometime.

I am a fan of electric cars and electric battery research even as I admit
electric battery technology still needs more advances to become truly viable.
We have to start somewhere, somehow, sometime, making these advances in technology.
I don't know what to think about hydrogen fuel cells.
I believe hydrogen fuel cells are further away than electric battery technology.

I don't know what to think about any small oil drillers, if they exist.
I suspect, small oil drillers would be bought up by the big oil corporations.