Amy Harder
National Journal
Large oil companies don’t need tax subsidies when oil prices are high, a former CEO of Shell Oil said Thursday.
“In the face of sustained high oil prices it was not an issue – for large companies – of needing the subsidies to entice us into looking for and producing more oil,” John Hofmeister told National Journal Daily.
Hofmeister retired from Shell in 2008 and founded the group Citizens for Affordable Energy. He testified to a House subcommittee Thursday on how Egyptian unrest affects oil prices.
Before that hearing, he told Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., in a private conversation that big oil companies don’t need government help. Markey mentioned Hofmeister’s comment in a news conference later Thursday when introducing legislation eliminating $5 billion worth of subsidies to the major oil and gas companies. “He told me that privately [Thursday] but that he would say that in public if asked to do so,” Markey said after the news conference.
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