Steven Holt: “I thank my friend, Mr. Markey, for yielding. This is about Big Oil handouts, pure and simple. There are no lessons…”

“I thank my friend, Mr. Markey, for yielding. This is about Big Oil handouts, pure and simple. There are no lessons learned, no lessons applied with regard to safety or protection of the environment. You know, if these companies were energy companies, as they like to say, they would invest more in producing sustainable, clean energy alternatives. In the long run, we all know it. We've got to face the facts. We've got to break our addiction to oil; and if the majority, the authors of this legislation, really wanted to help the motorists, the consumers, they would address speculation. They would end the speculation. They would end the tax giveaways. They would use the strategic oil reserve to short-circuit speculation. The oil companies are not energy companies. They are fleecing machines. The greatest profits of any corporation in history--and you heard me say a few minutes ago--that the biggest of them, Exxon, had an effective tax rate of about 0.4 percent. This will not help the consumer.”