Environmental Law & Climate Change: Environmental Law Blog: CERCLA/Superfund: 2010 Budget Plan assumes superfund tax is reinstated in 2011, if the economy has recovered

CERCLA/Superfund

4/3/2009 11:47:32 PM EST

2010 Budget Plan assumes superfund tax is reinstated in 2011, if the economy has recovered

Partner, Ropers Majeski Kohn & Bentley

The so-called Superfund tax on oil and chemical companies expired in 1995. However, President Obama's proposed budget for FY 2010 assumes that the tax will be reinstated in 2011 "after the economy recovers". The budget assumes that $17.2 billion in revenue will be generated from FY 2011 through 2019 by reinstating CERCLA taxes on oil and chemical companies, and on certain corporate profits. The applicable rates would be the same as in 1995.

The American Petroleum Institute has noted its opposition to the reinstatement of the taxes. API notes that when the taxes were imposed in 1980, the oil industry funded 74% of all government expenditures under the Superfund program, but only accounted for 10% of the clean-up liability.

Several bills have been introduced in the House to reinstate the tax, though the rates may differ from those in effect in 1995 and the time-span of the applicable tax may differ slightly from that assumed in the budget. See HR 832 [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.832:] and HR 564 [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.564:]. Senator Lautenberg (D., NJ), who chairs the subcommittee on Superfund, Toxics and Environmental Health, also plans to introduce a tax bill. [See http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20090206/UPDATES01/90206018/-1/rss.]

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