February 12, 2022 - A windfall tax on oil giants would harm - not help - pensioners 

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February 12, 2022

A windfall tax on oil giants would harm - not help - pensioners by Ross Clark
Appeared in The Spectator on February 8, 2022

Gina's Thoughts

BP and Shell form the backbone of many UK pension schemes and both companies are "the rare chinks of light" in this year's performance of the shares and bonds which make up those pension funds. "BP is up 15 per cent and Shell up 20 per cent, with both enjoying bumper profits on the back of high oil and gas prices." The author writes that the state wants to "snatch a punitive share of these profits during the good times" by imposing a windfall tax on these companies. But the state does not "appreciate how the retirement plans of many millions of ordinary workers depend on dividends and share values of public companies. In the state's mind, 'dividends' and 'shareholders' are rude words - whereas in reality the people with a stake in BP and Shell are in many cases exactly the same people who are struggling to pay their heating bills." Layer this way of thinking with the fact that BP and Shell are the biggest villains for the divestment lobby and have been for the ten years that the divestment movement has been in existence, and we can see why there is a disconnect. "The current surge in gas prices is a sign of the divestment folly: it reminds us how, in spite of huge investment in renewables in recent years, we are still heavily dependent on fossil fuels and will be for the forseeable future. Oil and gas companies are doing well at the moment because they are providing a vital public service, and we would be in serious trouble if they stopped providing it."

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