Report: Paul Ryan May Personally Benefit From Preserving Billions In Taxpayer Oil Subsidies

By Lee Fang 

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), the architect of the GOP budget plan, has put forth a plan that calls for ending a number of tax subsidies. However, he has hedged multiple times when asked about oil subsidies. When given the opportunity to end billions in taxpayer giveaways to big oil companies, Ryan voted to preserve the generous subsidies.

The Daily Beast’s Daniel Stone is reporting that Ryan’s protection of billions in wasteful oil subsidies may relate to his own personal fortune. Newly released personal finance disclosures reveal that Ryan and his wife “own stakes in four family companies that lease land in Texas and Oklahoma to the very energy companies that benefit from the tax subsidies in Ryan’s budget plan.” Stone reports that those companies are among his most valuable assets:

Ryan’s father-in-law, Daniel Little, who runs the companies, told Newsweek and The Daily Beast that the family companies are currently leasing the land for mining and drilling to energy giants such as Chesapeake Energy, Devon, and XTO Energy, a recently acquired subsidiary of ExxonMobil.

Some of these firms would be eligible for portions of the $45 billion in energy tax breaks and subsidies over 10 years protected in the Wisconsin lawmaker’s proposed budget. “Those [energy developing companies] benefit a lot from these subsidies,” explained Russ Harding, an energy policy analyst with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, when presented with the situation, without reference to Ryan. “Without those, they’re going to be less profitable.”

According to disclosure reports reviewed by ThinkProgress, other major proponents of extending billions in oil subsidies are also heavily invested in oil and drilling companies. For example, Energy and Commerce Chairman Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) owns up to $250,000 in ExxonMobil stock, among other fossil fuel investments.

Rep. Gerry Connolly Proposes Officially Changing Title Of Anti-EPA Bill To ‘Koch Brothers Appreciation Act’

Paul Breer

Weeks ago, Koch-funded climate change denying Republicans on the House Energy Committeevoted unanimously in favor of the Upton-Inhofe billto eliminate the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The Republican-controlled House is expected to pass the bill later this week and Rep. Gerry Connollly (D-VA) wants to call a spade a spade and officially change the name of the bill to a more appropriate title:

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) wants to change the title of a bill that would permanently block Environmental Protection Agency climate regulations to the “Koch Brothers Appreciation Act,” a reference to the billionaire brothers who are active in Republican politics.

Connolly has submitted to the House Rules Committee a series of amendments that would change the title of the bill to everything from the “Middle Eastern Economic Development and Assistance Act” to the “Head in the Sand Act.”

Others include the … “Oil Producing Economy Capitulation Act.”

The Upton-Inhofe bill is not expected to pass the Senate. But If approved, the bill would would overturn a 2007 Supreme Court decision which ruled that the EPA has the right to regulate car tailpipe emissions under the Clean Air Act. This legislation has been a top priority for the Kochs and their network of the conservative think tank and astroturf groups.

For more on the Kochs, see the Center for American Progress Action Fund’s new report on “What You Need to Know About the Financiers of the Radical Right.”

UPDATESen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), in response to the proposed alternative name amendments, told Connolly and House Democrats this afternoon to “Get a life.”