Fuel dollars.

A particularly lucrative Hilton Hotel Corp. tax break is safe.

The U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee has voted down a measure that would eliminate a tax credit for synthetic fuel produced from coal. The credit, provided for in Section 29 of the tax code, grew out of the 1970s energy crisis.

Since that time, corporations have boosted production of synthetic fuel to make use of the tax credit. Hilton is one of those corporations, and the Beverly Hills-based hotel company acquired a 24 percent minority interest in a synthetic fuel facility for around $32 million in 2004.

The facility has operated at a loss since Hilton's purchase: the company's share of that loss was approximately $17 million last year and $6 million the prior year. Still, the tax credit was about $23 million in 2005 and $9 million in 2004, with the benefit to Hilton's net income totaling $6 million and $3 million in those years, respectively, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Across the country, Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, estimates that corporations have saved as much as $4 billion from the tax credit annually. Doggett introduced the bill to dump the tax credit.

Hilton isn't the only hotel company to make use of the credit: Marriott International Inc. has reduced its total tax liability by $558 million and dropped its total effective tax rate to under 5 percent from 36.5 percent since 2001, according to information compiled by Doggett.

Staff reporter Rachel Brown can be reached at [phone], ext. 224, or at [e-mail].