Tax on Windfall Oil Profits

Returning a civic dividend on corporate profits

While Washington citizens and businesses paid historically high prices for gasoline over the past several years, major oil companies have reaped windfall profits, major oil companies are reaping windfall profits. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being taken from the budgets of families and businesses and exported out of our state every week.

Simultaneously, global warming is taking its toll on agriculture and water resources, increasing both flood and drought. Some organizations in our society benefit from our dependence on the petroleum-based economy, the increasing global and national demand for oil, and the stagnation of production. Those are the major multinational oil companies.

There is a better way. We can steer our economy to become more dependent upon renewable energy. We can develop a transportation system that emphasizes convenience and efficiency. We have the resources at hand to do so, by redirecting windfalls from the oil industry into investments for research and development and commercialization of the renewable energy industry, and building a rational transportation system that will get us from home to work quickly and efficiently.

A state level windfall profits tax could generate over $600 million annually, with proceeds invested to incubate the production and use of renewable energy, retrofit schools for greater energy efficiency, shift student bus transportation to biodiesel fuel, and reduce taxes.

Featured Publication

Report: Environment, Economy and Energy

Discusses the energy-economic-environmental quandary confronting us individually and as a society, and explores policy options for rational and democratic energy and transportation policies in our state.