More on the 2005 energy bill, which came up earlier in the debate. McCain said it was “festooned with Christmas tree ornaments,” and claimed that Obama’s vote for it shows his support of excessive pork spending. McCain implied that his own vote against it was a vote against giveaways to Big Oil.
But at the time, McCain’s chief criticisms of the bill were that he thought it would raise gas prices in Arizona, that it mandated too much ethanol use, and that its tax incentives for people who buy alternative-fuel vehicles were too generous. According to FactCheck.org, the bill actually “resulted in a small net tax increase on oil companies.”
The policies that McCain has proposed on the campaign trail this year would continue subsidies for Big Oil, which would total $33 billion [PDF] in the next five years. His plans would also cut taxes on oil companies by $4 billion, according to a recent report [PDF] by the Center for American Progress Action Fund. He also opposes Obama’s plan to impose a windfall profits tax on oil companies.
