Baucus Proposes Axing Key Oil and Gas Tax Breaks

Oil and natural gas companies would lose some of their most lucrative tax breaks under a reform proposal unveiled Thursday.

Proposals to eliminate the industry's incentives in the tax code are nothing new from congressional Democrats, but Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus' inclusion of them in a draft of his broader tax reform proposal heightens the risk they could be swept away as part of a tax code overhaul lawmakers in both parties have said they want to enact next year.  The Montana Democrat -- a critic of some environmental regulations and proponent of the Keystone XL pipeline -- is no one's idea of Public Enemy No. 1 to the oil industry on Capitol Hill.

Baucus Proposes Axing Key Oil and Gas Tax Breaks