Sen. Brown outlines bills to lower gas prices
WTAM – Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown has outlined two new bills aimed at lowering gas prices.
With the average price per gallon of gas in Ohio up more than $1.30 over the last year and 48 cents in the last month alone, Brown outlined a bill Monday aimed at ending the more than $4 billion in tax deductions, subsidies, and royalty relief to big oil companies each year.
Brown’s bill would end what he calls “wasteful taxpayer handouts” to big oil companies that are making record profits. The savings would be used to reduce the federal deficit.
Brown also announced support for legislation that would make it illegal for oil-producing nations to band together to manipulate the price of oil, natural gas, or any petroleum product, and give the U.S. Attorney General the authority to pursue legal action under the Sherman Antitrust Act.
Over the last decade, Brown says the nation’s five largest oil companies have taken home nearly $1 trillion in profits–including more than $30 billion in the first quarter of 2011 alone–and tens of billions in dollars in taxpayer subsidies.
