As the recent cyclone disaster focused public opinion on the hideous military junta dominating Burma, congressional attention has inconveniently swung toward Chevron, which enjoys enormous tax breaks on profits gleaned from a natural gas pipeline it operates there. Congressmen have introduced legislation revoking such tax breaks, and New York Senator Chuck Shumer issued a statement on Wednesday, claiming that “American taxpayers should not have to subsidize Chevron’s presence in Myanmar, which only helps to prop up a brutal, despotic regime.” Chevron reps claimed that hurting them would only hurt the poor nameless peasants of Burma. Seriously, they really did. Would you like to know how? According to the Houston Chronicle, revoking the tax breaks would force the San Ramon oil giant to sell its operation, and the tax from that sale would only give the junta more money. We love the logic of oil companies.
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