Ron Paul

Post image for Fight Over Natural Gas Heats Up

There is a highly controversial natural gas bill floating around the House of Representatives, with over 180 cosponsors, written about here (also here and here).

The Daily Caller’s Chris Moody summarizes the debate:

The measure has 180 bipartisan co-sponsors, including many of the chamber’s most conservative Republican members. But some are crying foul over the special treatment that the government would be providing to the natural gas industry, arguing that it is not Washington’s role to “choose winners and losers” by offering tax credits to promote one energy industry over another. The bill’s proponents, however, say promoting natural gas — a plentiful resource in the United States — will help wean the country off foreign oil, provide resources to alternative energy sources and increase the nation’s energy security.

A coalition of nearly two dozen free-market and conservative groups sent a letter to members of Congress in March urging them to avoid new subsidies and tax credits, and they plan to blast anyone — especially Republicans — who do.

The divide is so deep in fact, that it has even split the libertarian advocacy group Campaign For Liberty, a co-signer of the March letter, with its founder, Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul, who is co-sponsoring the tax credit bill. Paul discussed his support for tax credits during a recent interview with MSNBC, arguing that they are not subsidies, as his critics would call them, but rather another form of tax reductions.

Post image for The T. Boone Pickens Earmark Bill

Republicans in the House of Representatives are flocking to support a bill to extend and create a number of taxpayer-funded subsidies for manufacturers and buyers of vehicles powered by natural gas.   Nearly eighty House Republicans (and a hundred Democrats) have signed up as sponsors of H. R. 1380, the New Alternative Transportation to Give Americans Solutions Act (or NAT GAS Act).  Just call it the T. Boone Pickens Earmark Bill.

Many conservative Republicans in the House, particularly a number of new Members with Tea Party connections, have sworn that the fiscal and economic crisis confronting America requires a radical change in federal policies.  Out-of-control spending must be stopped; spending earmarks must be abolished; crony capitalists on the prowl for corporate welfare must be sent packing; subsidies for special interests must be abolished; government must stop interfering in the economy and let free markets work.

That big talk doesn’t seem to apply when the spending is being earmarked for a crony capitalist who is one of the biggest contributors to Republican candidates in history–billionaire T. Boone Pickens.  Apparently, some subsidies are good if they benefit the right special interests.  And government interference in the economy is wonderful if it is done in the name of reducing oil imports.

H. R. 1380 would extend the tax credit of 50 cents per gallon of liquid natural gas (or its equivalent of compressed natural gas) when used for fueling vehicles and provide purchasers of natural gas vehicles with credits ranging from $7,500 to $64,000.  The lower end is for passenger cars and the upper end for big trucks.  There are also credits for natural gas vehicle manufacturers and for installing natural gas fueling stations.

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Post image for Support for the Boone(doggle) Pickens Bill

With the current partisan fighting over oil subsidies (and energy policy more generally), its worthwhile to look at energy legislation that has found bipartisan support: the New Alternative Transportation to Give Americans Solutions Act of 2011 (the NAT GAS Act, often called the Boone Pickens bill). It currently has 180 cosponsors, split roughly even between Republicans and Democrats. Joe Nocera likes it.

True fiscal/small government conservatives understand the danger of using the tax code to steer the economy. It has brought us ethanol, subsidized home ownership for the wealthy, etc. Populist conservatives-in-name-only don’t actually care about applying consistent principles, or often let their concern be overshadowed by campaign donations.

Which is why I was surprised to see Representative Ron Paul, principled libertarian/free-market extraordinaire, as a cosponsor. I spoke to someone in Ron Paul’s office, and they explained (roughly) that support for tax credits (i.e., industries paying less in income tax relative to the status quo) is consistent with Ron Paul’s support for lower taxes.

This YouTube clip seems to explain Paul’s position (he was asked about a bill to end tax credits for the oil industry):

PAUL: Well, how do you define a subsidy? I don’t consider any tax break as a subsidy. That was not a spending bill, that was not a grant.

I never vote to increase any taxes. I vote to always give tax credits, and I always cut spending. I’ve never voted for a real spending bill, so, I don’t think that is in the category of something I’d consider a spending bill.

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Your hosts Richard Morrison and Jeremy Lott team up with special guest co-host Tim Carney to bring you Episode 73 of the LibertyWeek podcast. We start with happenings at COP-15 in Copenhagen and the suppression of Phelim McAleer’s Climategate questions (segment runs 0:45-7:00). We end with an interview with Tim Carney, author of the new book Obamanomics: How Barack Obama Is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends, Corporate Lobbyists, and Union Bosses (available online and at fine booksellers everywhere).