Semantics are wondrous things. Many politicians, including some Republicans, are now calling for the elimination of oil industry "subsidies" as one small way of closing our heinous budget deficit. These subsidies supposedly total $4.4 billion per year (see: Oil Industry Subsidies.) This is a very small amelioration (less than 0.3%) considering that our budget deficits are now running around $1.6 trillion per year.
Now, I am old enough to remember what these oil-industry "subsidies" really are. They used to be called "oil depletion allowances." These allowances were meant to equate to "depreciation" in other industries. In other words, as an oil company either purchased or leased the mineral rights to a piece of land ... and then extracted the oil, there was a reduced value to this land since the oil was being extracted. Thus oil companies were thus allowed to "depreciate" this depleted oil deposit to allow them to then go and buy or lease other land to look for more oil.
Can we thus call the ability of General Motors to depreciate the machinery (robots, machine tools, etc.) it uses to make cars an "auto-industry subsidy?" If we did, all hell would break loose. Now maybe the formulas used to calculate oil depletion allowances need to be reformulated given the new technology used in oil extraction. But to eliminate these oil-industry "subsides" entirely is but another step in our tree huggers' attempt to emasculate the United States' energy-producing capabilities. This is a little like playing Russian Roulette with five bullets in your six-shooter.
