Press Releases
December 16, 2019
Washington, DC — The Center for Climate Integrity, a group that seeks to hold climate polluters accountable for the costs associated with climate change, is calling out the injustice of Chevron, one of the world’s largest oil companies, paying no federal income tax last year, as American taxpayers face billions of dollars in costs to pay for the climate change damages that Chevron and other Big Oil companies knowingly helped create.
According to data released today by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Chevron paid zero dollars in federal income taxes in 2018, despite making more than $4.5 billion in profits. The report found that the oil, gas, and pipeline industry overall benefited from massive tax breaks, paying one of the lowest effective corporate tax rates (3.6%).
“Chevron has built its fortune through fossil fuel products that contribute to sea-level rise, extreme weather, and other costly damages associated with climate change that American taxpayers are having to foot the bill for every day,” said Richard Wiles, executive director of the Center for Climate Integrity. “It is absolutely disgraceful that our political system allows a multi-billion dollar corporation to escape paying its fair share of these costs while Chevron’s products continue to ravage our climate and drive up costs for everyone else. This injustice is exactly why we support the growing number of communities across the country who are taking Big Oil companies like Chevron to court to pay their fair share of the costly climate damages they knowingly helped create.”
In a report released earlier this year, CCI found that coastal and tidal communities in the lower 48 states will have to spend more than $400 billion by 2040 to pay for seawalls needed to protect infrastructure, property and lives from climate-driven sea-level rise.