Oil Companies

WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats tried Tuesday to channel public anger at $4-a-gallon gasoline into passing a bill to repeal federal tax breaks and subsidies for five major oil companies, but they fell short. After bashing Big Oil in a hearing last week, Senate Democrats mustered fewer than the 60 votes they needed under Senate rules to move the bill to a final vote. The final count was 52-48. Three Democrats - Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Mark Begich of Alaska, and Ben Nelson of Nebraska - voted against the measure.

WASHINGTON - Motorists are paying around $4 for a gallon of gasoline while the oil industry reaps pretax profits that could hit $200 billion this year. That makes another big number hard to take: $4.4 billion. That's how much the oil industry saves every year through tax breaks intended to promote domestic drilling. That was the background Thursday for a Senate hearing that flogged oil-company chief executive officers - and no senator bothered to pretend it was about making gasoline prices more affordable or helping the economy recover from the recession.

Obama criticizes tax breaks for oil WASHINGTON - President Obama reiterated his call Saturday to end billions of dollars in tax breaks for oil companies and instead invest in alternative-energy sources. In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama said the United States shouldn't be granting $4 billion in tax breaks to oil companies when they are reaping tens of billions of dollars in profit and gasoline prices have risen above $4 per gallon in much of the nation. "While rising gas prices mean real pain for our families at the pump, they also mean bigger profits for oil companies," the president said.

MIAMI - After being hammered for a year over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, BP is going on the offensive with multibillion-dollar lawsuits seeking to shift at least part of the blame to those who owned the ill-fated rig or designed a failed safety device or supplied cement that did not hold. Those companies - Transocean, Cameron International, and Halliburton - each filed lawsuits of their own, and it will be up to the courts to divvy up fault. As of Thursday, BP had already paid out more than $3.9 billion to people and businesses through a separate, $20 billion claims process administered by lawyer Kenneth Feinberg.

THOSE jack-in-the-box ovations he got Tuesday may have been the only acts of Congress that President Obama's State of the Union address would prompt. Until he called on Congress to take the one step that made sense to anyone smart enough to lace up his boots. He was urging the lawmakers to help break our dependence on fossil fuels by investing in new energy technologies. "And to help pay for it," he said, "I'm asking Congress to eliminate the billions in taxpayer dollars we currently give to oil companies.

In 2009 New Jersey began requiring new equipment on oil-storage tanks at the refinery in Paulsboro and facilities like it in a move to curb emissions that can cause respiratory illness. Now Paulsboro Mayor John Burzichelli, also a state assemblyman, is seeking to roll back the regulation at the oil industry's urging. An Assembly regulatory panel chaired by Burzichelli on Thursday approved a resolution he sponsored that would give the state 30 days to amend or withdraw the rule, which is unique among East Coast states, New Jersey environmental officials say. The oil industry has argued it is too expensive and provides little environmental benefit.

Clyde A. Mauger Jr., 100, of Chadds Ford, owner of a fuel-oil firm in Chester County, died Saturday, Dec. 4, at his home. Mr. Mauger grew up in Delaware County and graduated from Glen-Nor High School. He studied business at Pennsylvania State University before becoming a dispatcher for Butler Oil Corp. in Southwest Philadelphia. During World War II, he served in the Army Air Force in North Africa and England. He was discharged as a captain and returned to Butler, eventually becoming a vice president.

A new proposal to fund transportation projects around Pennsylvania has run into opposition from labor unions angered by a provision that would ban strikes by transit workers without three days' notice. The provision was prompted by last year's last-minute strike by SEPTA workers just after Philadelphia hosted the World Series. "It's a direct attack on union members' rights to organize and their freedom to assemble and their right to honor another union's picket line," said Frank Sirianni, president of the Pennsylvania Building and Construction Trades Council.

A new proposal to fund transportation projects around Pennsylvania has run into opposition from labor unions angered by a provision that would ban strikes by transit workers without three days' notice. The provision was prompted by last year's last-minute strike by SEPTA workers just after Philadelphia hosted the World Series. "It's a direct attack on union members' rights to organize and their freedom to assemble and their right to honor another union's picket line," said Frank Sirianni, president of the Pennsylvania Building and Construction Trades Council.