U.S. Senate Republicans blocked last week a bill that would have created a 25% windfall profits tax on oil companies that did not invest in alternative energy.
The Consumer-First Energy Act of 2008, S. 3044, also would have removed a $17 billion tax break from oil and gas companies, hiked up margin requirements in order to curb price speculation and enabled the U.S. to sue countries or cartels such as OPEC if they limited the production or distribution of oil and gas.
Senate Republicans blocked the bill in a cloture vote by 51 to 43, shy of the 60 votes needed for Democrats to break the Republican filibuster.
Last week's vote followed another important vote from the previous week, in which ...