Oklahoma U.S. Sen. James Lankford says it’s time to remove new energy taxes on Oklahoma energy companies that were put in place by former President Joe Biden.
Writing in a letter to constituents, the Republican Senator said it’s time the tax laws were “eliminated.”
The 2017 Trump tax cuts will expire in December if we do not act, which will cause the tax burden to go up on every American and every small business next year. We will not allow that to happen. But there are also a few other tax laws that were added by President Biden on our Oklahoma energy companies that need to be eliminated. Those new energy taxes drove up the cost of gasoline, natural gas, and so many other products in the last four years. I have written a bill to strip away the high tax penalties on oil and gas production, so those companies are treated the exact same way other manufacturers are treated in the tax code—no more, no less.
The ALIGN Act is another tax bill I have written that allows any business to write off their big expenses in the year they buy their equipment. This bill doesn’t reduce the amount of tax coming into the treasury over time, it just allows a company to depreciate the asset faster so they can invest in new infrastructure, technology and jobs faster. The ALIGN Act is good for any business, small or large, but it is vital to energy companies that spend so much money on pipelines and drilling equipment before they ever make a dime in profit.
The stakes are high for our economy. In Oklahoma alone, the oil and gas industry supports more than 350,000 families and adds $60 billion to the state’s economy.
