Letter to the Editor:

In your recent article (“Big-business leaders talk tax code at Mont. summit,” Sept. 16), Ryan Lance, CEO of ConocoPhillips reportedly told Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mt. and Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mi.: “It is important to be industry blind. Don’t pick our winners and losers in the process.”

The federal government already picks winners and losers in the tax code, and oil companies like ConocoPhillips are definitely among the “winners.” Lance is obviously concerned that during our ongoing financial crisis the public might consider eliminating the tax breaks for the most profitable industry in the world. He is right to worry. The oil and gas industry-specific tax breaks are an especially good place to begin. Some are almost a century old, and the industry does not need help from taxpayers.

Not only do the oil giants benefit from favorable treatment in the tax code, they routinely underpay for royalties on publicly owned assets, like those in the Bakken formation. These resources should certainly be developed, but taxpayers shouldn’t be getting shortchanged for extraction of taxpayer-owned natural resources.

Sen. Baucus and Rep. Camp should begin the tax reform process by removing the “special deals” already built into the tax code that create winners and losers, especially those for oil and gas companies. They get enough from taxpayers as it is.

— Ryan Alexander

Taxpayers for Common Sense

Washington, D.C.