One Wisconsin Now

The Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAPAF) has done an analysis of Senator John McCain’s oil industry subsidies plan and it doesn’t look pretty. At a time when Big Oil has all of us over a barrel and is making such obscene profits, John McCain is proposing massive tax giveaways and other hand outs to them. McCain’s proposals would give $39 billion in federal help for oil and gas companies over the next five years. These subsidies and tax breaks could be used in many different ways to help support a serious long-term solution to our energy crisis. The CAPAF analysis outlines how McCain’s $39 billion for Big Oil could be invested in renewable energy and it estimates how many tax dollars from each state will be spent subsidizing Big Oil.

CAPAF estimates that Wisconsin’s share of McCain’s $39 Billion giveaway to Big Oil is $640 million! That is enough to weatherize 230,000 homes, power 98,000 homes with wind, and create 155,000 homes powered by geothermal technology. Doing all of those things would also create an estimated 2,750 new jobs in Wisconsin. Instead of taking such a long-term and forward thinking approach, John McCain is suggesting that Wisconsin keep using the same old model that keeps enriching the same folks that repeatedly gouge us. Apparently Wisconsin is just supposed to thank Big Oil and hand over it’s share of the $39 billion in extra giveaways. Exactly what kind of energy policy is that? The simple answer: it’s McSame as Bush and it won’t yield any different result.  More pain at the pump and more record profits for Big Oil.