Kevin Brady: “I agree completely with our Democrat friends: we need to invest more in renewable energy. It is the right thing to do…”

“I agree completely with our Democrat friends: we need to invest more in renewable energy. It is the right thing to do, and it is long overdue. But doing it by taxing American energy companies more for exploring and creating jobs here at home makes no sense. Let's be clear. This bill says, foreign oil and foreign jobs are good; American oil and American jobs are bad. And that is crazy. The new House leadership may believe it scores in political points to target Texas energy companies and refiners, many of whom are union workers. But our communities don't think it is so funny and our union workers don't think it is so funny. This bill punishes energy companies for doing the research that leads to successful wells. The old Tax Code had a perverse disincentive. If you failed in finding a successful well, you could write off expenses. If you are successful, though, we punished you for it. We changed that, because we think companies ought to do more research, not less, drill accurate wells, drill fewer of them, and have smaller footprints. This provision is an anti-research and an anti-environmental provision. This bill declares energy jobs in America aren't manufacturing jobs. Under this bill, we treat energy workers, including high-paying union workers, as foreign workers. We treat our people as foreign workers. And farmers are manufacturers under this bill. Cartoonists are manufacturers under this bill.”