I’m excited to be posting this article because it’s probably both the first article courtesy of Mark Thoma, Economist’s View, (Thank you, Mark!), 
and he’s quoting my tax law professor, Prof. Theodore Seto from about 15 years ago at Loyola. How fun – first time for everything! And no, Prof. Seto won’t remember me, but I used to hang out after class to ask him my long list of questions, and he was very patient, and he looks the same now (in the picture) as he did then. – Ilene
"Why Oil Companies Don’t Drill"
Theodore Seto, a professor of tax law and policy at Loyola Law School Los Angeles, notes the distortion in the tax code toward investment in oil exploration with "the U.S. tax rate on profits from petroleum and natural gas structures … the lowest imposed on any type of corporate capital asset":
Why Oil Companies Don’t Drill, Understanding Tax: U.S. oil companies are pushing hard to get Congress to allow the current Administration to issue more oil leases before its term expires. In response, skeptics have noted that three-quarters of the 90 million-plus acres of federal land already leased for oil drilling are not being worked. Oil companies deny this. Regardless of who is right, the number of operating oil rigs in North America declined across the course of 2007.
In the meantime, OPEC has raised its quotas by only 20% since 1998 – a measly 2% per year. World GDP grew by about 85% over the same period. The International Energy Agency reports that non-OPEC oil countries are also underproducing and predicts that they will continue to do so.
Everyone seems to be holding back. … So what to do?
On the tax side, Congress has done almost all it can do to stimulate U.S. production.
A 2005 Congressional Budget Office study concluded that the effective 2002 U.S. tax rate on profits from petroleum and natural gas structures was the lowest imposed on any type of corporate capital asset: 9.2%. Profits from computers, by contrast, were taxed at an effective rate of 36.9%.
A 2000 study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy concluded that in 1998, of all U.S. industries, petroleum and pipeline companies were taxed at the lowest effective rates: 5.7%. Health care companies, by contrast, were taxed at an effective rate of 32%.
If tax incentives were going to induce U.S. oil companies to drill, they probably would have done so by now. Interestingly, Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama both propose to eliminate oil production tax incentives. After all, if oil companies are not responding by increasing production, those breaks are just gifts from you and me to Exxon. …
Remember that prices are a measure of value. If oil prices are going to be much higher 10 years from now, that means oil will be more valuable then than it is now. Valuable to us.
If so, should it really be our policy to drain U.S. reserves as quickly as possible? Or should our policy be to save at least some of those reserves for the day when gas is $10/gallon?
"just gifts from you and me to Exxon. …"
