system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why do oil companies get tax breaks?
gpt
The same reason every company gets tax breaks (mostly for expenses sometimes for investments that congress wants to incenivise).  Oil companies do a tremendous amount of fixed investment (so depreciation is very important for them).  Also they're in a great position to make investments in green energy technology that's frequently offers tax credits (lots of chemists, high incomes access to energy, and not all "green" tech is what you'd expect).