Virginia Senator Urged To Support Repeal Of Fossil Fuel Subsidies

TYSONS CORNER, VA — Environmental activists protested outside the Tysons Corner office of Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) Thursday afternoon, calling on him to commit to ending federal fossil fuel subsidies as Congress debates separate budget and infrastructure bills.

As a member of both the Senate Budget and Finance committees, Warner will likely serve as a deal broker among more conservative Senate Democrats as budget negotiations continue in Congress.

Warner was involved in negotiating the infrastructure bill, which could add $25 billion in subsidies to fund projects like carbon sequestration and hydrogen energy that are tied to the burning of fossil fuels decades into the future.

“This is no time to sit on the sidelines,” Lukas Ross, with Friends of the Earth U.S., said in a statement. “Sen. Warner needs to take the lead on ending billions in Big Oil handouts. The budget resolution that just passed in Congress may be his last chance to do just that.”

At the protest, the activists delivered a package of signatures gathered by Friends of the Earth, Food & Water Watch and Greenpeace calling for the elimination of federal fossil fuel subsidies to a representative from Warner's office.

According to a House subcommittee report, federal and state governments give the fossil fuel industry more than $20.5 billion in support each year through the tax code, inadequate royalty rates and direct funding. Fossil fuel companies claimed $8.2 billion in 2020 from the CARES Act pandemic relief bill, according to the report.

Ross noted in 2016, Warner voted in favor of an amendment to the Senate Energy Policy Modernization Act, which would have phased out taxpayer subsidies for coal and some of the largest producers of oil and gas over a four-year period. The bill did not pass in 2016.

Although Warner has not publicly stated where he stands on federal subsidies for the oil and gas industry in 2021, the activists hope he will once again support the repeal of fossil fuel subsidies.

"We're here today to make sure that Sen. Mark Warner, who has made himself a crucial deal broker in these negotiations, hears from us loud and clear that fossil fuel subsidy repeal needs to be part of this package," Ross said outside Warner's office Thursday.

Ross said fossil fuel companies do not need subsidies, including the favoritism they receive in the U.S. tax code, because when they do get federal tax credits, "it incentivizes production when prices are low or pads CEO profits when prices are high."

Earlier this week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a $3.5 trillion budget resolution. House leaders have set a deadline of Sept. 27 to get the budget reconciliation bill passed. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) also wants to pass the separate infrastructure bill, which was already passed by the Senate, by the end of September.

The full text of the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill has not yet been written in either chamber of Congress.