Menendez recycled 14-year-old bill after McCormick called for action

U.S. Senator Bob Menendez re-introduced his "Close Big Oil Tax Loopholes Act" in what some see as a political stunt in reaction to Democratic activist Lisa McCormick's call for an end to oil and gas subsidies.

McCormick, a vocal advocate for substantive change in environmental policy, condemned Menendez for cosmetic actions rather than effective lawmaking when she was the only New Jersey Democrat willing to challenge the corrupt lawmaker in 2018.

In October, McCormick criticized President Joe Biden and other establishment Democrats for what she called "a failure to promptly end tens of billions of dollars in federal tax subsidies for oil and gas companies."

Although Biden proposed eliminating these subsidies in his budget for fiscal year 2024, the budget has yet to pass Congress and McCormick expressed doubt that the cuts would survive the legislative process.

McCormick pointed out that Biden had the opportunity to propose these changes in two previous fiscal year budgets and questioned the delay in taking action.

"While it is noteworthy that after I called for an end to oil and gas subsidies, U.S. Senator Bob Menendez recycled a pair of bills that he failed to advance in 14 years, but if elected, I intend on holding Big Oil accountable, repealing their tax subsidies and advocating a government takeover of the largest oil corporations to use their record profits and other assets to finance a clean energy transition," said McCormick.

"The Close Big Oil Tax Loopholes Act was first introduced in 2010 and reintroduced in 2017, which means that Senator Menendez failed to pass this legislation," said McCormick. "New Jersey voters would be wise to elect one of us who will not allow the wealthy to victimize middle-class households and instead more effectively take on the oil industry. Tammy Snyder Murphy will not be on our side since she is a stockholder in ExxonMobile, Chevron, and several other fossil fuel companies."

Menendez's bills aim to address tax loopholes that have allowed major oil corporations to benefit from subsidies while avoiding their fair share of taxes.

The legislation also seeks to redirect funds toward a clean energy transition, aligning with the broader goals of environmental activists like McCormick, but The Close Big Oil Tax Loopholes Act was first introduced in 2010 and again in 2017, and she argued that Menendez failed to move his legislation because he does not put middle-class households ahead of the oil industry.

"While it is noteworthy that two months after I called for an end to oil and gas subsidies, Senator Menendez recycled a pair of bills that he failed to advance in 14 years," remarked Lisa McCormick. "It seems like Menendez is more interested in political posturing than in actually challenging the powerful oil lobby because his action falls woefully short of what is needed to address the urgency of the climate crisis."

McCormick, who has called for repealing oil and gas subsidies and proposed a government takeover of oil corporations, could be positioning herself as a more robust advocate for change if she takes another shot at the US Senate seat.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated that global fossil fuel subsidies reached a record $7 trillion in 2022, representing 7.1% of global GDP.

This was a significant increase from the $5.9 trillion that Oil Change International, a non-profit research organization, estimated that global fossil fuel subsidies cost in 2020, including both explicit subsidies (such as direct payments to producers) and implicit subsidies (such as tax breaks and underpricing of fossil fuels).

Oil Change International estimates that the United States provides about $20.5 billion in annual subsidies to the fossil fuel industry, including $14.7 billion in federal subsidies and $5.8 billion in state-level incentives, but the International Energy Agency says that US fossil fuel subsidies could be as much as $50 billion annually, depending on how they are defined and measured.

McCormick said fossil fuel subsidies are a significant drain on government budgets, diverting resources away from other priorities, encouraging wasteful consumption of fossil fuels and discouraging investment in renewable energy.

Subsidies also disproportionately pollute communities with low incomes and benefit wealthy corporations that contribute to climate change, McCormick said.