Nick Rahall: “this bill is not a tax increase, I say to my colleagues. What we are doing is repealing subsidies, repealing royalties…”

“this bill is not a tax increase, I say to my colleagues. What we are doing is repealing subsidies, repealing royalties, and asking the oil and gas industry to pay their fair share. There is no tax increase whatsoever in this bill. The meat and potatoes of this legislation, H.R. 6, came through our Natural Resources Committee. It was drafted by our committee in consultation with the leadership. This committee is the same committee chaired in a previous Congress by our former colleague, Chairman Richard Pombo. Much of the legislation in this bill, H.R. 6, has been debated, has had hearings held therein, and has even been voted upon by the House of Representatives in the previous Congress. So I would suggest to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to go back and look at those votes that were held in a previous Congress in order to be consistent today. For example, the new conservation fee of $9 per barrel that is set up in this bill if the companies choose to pay no royalties.”