President Bush on Friday ruled out raising taxes on windfall profits by oil companies, saying it would be better for the firms to reinvest their profits in pipelines and refineries.
“The temptation in Washington is to tax everything,” Bush said in a Rose Garden press conference. “And they spend the money — they being the people in Washington.”
Bush said the money should be spent instead by the oil firms. He encouraged the companies to plow their profits into methods of increasing supply in an effort to mitigate skyrocketing gasoline prices.
“The oil companies need to be mindful that the American people expect them to reinvest their cash flows in such a way that it enhances our energy security,” he said.
“That means pipeline construction for natural gas deliveries,” he added. “That means expansion of refineries.”
Bush suggested no way to compel oil companies to shift the profits.
Within an hour of the president’s remarks, Royal Dutch Shell announced that it was considering a major refinery expansion in Port Arthur, Texas. If enacted, the expansion would more than double production from 285,000 barrels a day to 610,000.
“The project would make the Port Arthur Refinery the largest in the country,” Shell said in a prepared statement.
Bush called on Congress “to provide regulatory relief so people can expand their refineries.”
