On the recordDecember 19, 2019
I can assure the Senator that it was never Congress's intent for gasoline to qualify for this tax credit. I was chairman of the Senate Finance Committee when the alternative fuel mixture credit was enacted in 2005 as part of a surface transportation bill. During that time, there was great interest in reducing our dependence on foreign oil and traditional fuels. The alternative fuel mixture credit was added to reduce that dependence, not to provide a handout to large oil and gas companies. The fact is, if anyone had thought oil companies could qualify for this crediw they already engaged in, the credit would never have been enacted. Not only would I have objected on policy grounds, but the Joint Committee on Taxation's revenue score associated with the provision would have been so large that its passage wouldn't have been feasible. What is more, if we had intended for butane mixed with gasoline to qualify when the credit was enacted in 2005, I don't understand why industry waited more than 10 years to start claiming the credit for doing what they have been doing for more than a century, as you point out.
