Washington, D.C. — Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., released the following statement on Chevron’s $75 billion stock buyback:
“There were a lot of people who had to cut back on things like food, medicine, and travel with family when oil companies jacked up prices at the pump while pulling in record profits. It’s insulting when those Americans see Big Oil’s record profits turned around so quickly into these huge rewards for corporate executives and wealthy shareholders. This is exactly why Democrats passed legislation I wrote with Senator Brown in the Inflation Reduction Act creating a one percent excise tax on corporate stock buybacks. Given today’s news Congress clearly needs to go further. I’ve proposed legislation called the Taxing Big Oil Profiteers Act, which would raise the tax on Big Oil’s stock buybacks to 25 percent. It’s important to put a check on the price gouging and the windfall for wealthy shareholders, and in contrast, companies that refocus on cutting prices or investing in their workers or lower-carbon technologies won’t be affected.”
A web version of this statement is here.