Democrats Vote To Raise Americans’ Gas Prices

Gas Prices Are Still Over $4 Per Gallon, Nearly $2 Per Gallon More Than When President Biden Took Office

As of August 1^st, 2022, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that the weekly national retail gasoline price was 4.192 per gallon. (U.S. Energy Information Administration, 8/04/2022)

According to the EIA, the weekly national retail gasoline price on January 18, 2021 was $2.379 per gallon. (U.S. Energy Information Administration, 8/04/2022)

Yet Democrats Are Determined To Hit Oil Companies With A New Tax That Will Clearly Raise The Cost For Americans To Fill Up Their Cars And Trucks

“The legislation, which may get a Senate vote as soon as this week, would reinstate and increase a long-lapsed tax on crude and imported petroleum products to 16.4 cents per barrel, according to a summary of the plan released Sunday by the Senate’s tax-writing committee. The fee would be paid by US refineries receiving crude oil and importers of petroleum products, according to the Congressional Research Service… The proposed levy on imports is a revival of the Superfund tax, which helped fund the clean-up of hazardous waste sites and previously stood at 9.7 cents per barrel until it lapsed at the end of 1995. In addition to reinstating and increasing the tax, the Senate proposal would index the fee to inflation.” (“Manchin Spending Deal Includes Billions in Oil Import Taxes,” Bloomberg, 7/31/2022)

AMERICANS FOR TAX REFORM: “Democrats’ reckless tax and spend spree endorsed by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) includes a $12 billion tax on crude oil that will be paid by consumers in the form of higher gas and energy costs…. As if it weren’t bad enough, Democrats have pegged their tax increase to inflation. As inflation increases, so will the level of tax…. This tax hike is a clear violation of President Biden’s pledge not to raise any form of tax on anyone making less than $400,000 per year.” (“Manchin-Schumer Bill Includes $12 Billion Crude Oil Tax,” Americans for Tax Reform Website, 8/01/2022)

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO (R-WY), Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member: “People know what they want. They want energy that’s affordable, available, and reliable. And we know that the country is already looking at the fact that we may face blackouts as the summer progresses. The experts have said about two-thirds of the country is going to be subject to blackouts, but that doesn’t seem to stop the Democrats who want to raise taxes on American energy as well as in energy that we import from overseas. They actually have in this bill a fee on every barrel of oil that is imported. Billions of dollars of increased taxes, which will be going to the pain at the pump. Remember, this is Joe Biden, who just a year ago at the Glasgow Climate Summit in Scotland, went and asked Vladimir Putin to produce more Russian oil and send to the United States. We went to Iran for more oil, Venezuela for more oil, and just went hat-in-hand to Saudi Arabia saying send us more. That will all be taxed at a higher rate in taxing every barrel more than ever before. Oh, and they indexed it to inflation. So at a time when we have 9.1% inflation, Joe Biden and the Democrats want to put a tax that’s growing at the rate of inflation, which is going to make inflation worse. That’s what these folks are up to. So the pain at the pump is going to get worse.” (Sen. Barrasso, Press Conference, 8/05/2022)

SEN. JAMES LANKFORD (R-OK), Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee Member: “What else do [Democrats] try to do to ‘lower’ inflation? Well, they have a new tax and fee, and new royalties that are on oil and gas production in the United States. So while gasoline prices are high, they actually add another fee on that, [which will] raise the price of gasoline again. They’ve studied the area on natural gas, which people in my state use to heat their homes, heat their water, [for] electricity generation, and the natural gas folks have looked at the features of that and said the price of natural gas will go up 17 percent—17 percent—just [due to] the actions of this bill. So while they say this is about taking out inflation, it’s actually going to raise the price of everything.” (Sen. Lankford, Press Conference, 8/03/2022)

On Top Of That, Democrats’ Bill Will Charge Companies More To Produce Oil And Gas In The United States

“The bill would raise the minimum royalties for federal offshore oil and gas to 16.67% from the current 12.5%, and for 10 years would include a maximum of 18.75%, after which the cap would expire. The bill would revise the Mineral Leasing Act for onshore federal royalties to raise the minimum rate to 16.67% from its current 12.5%.” (“Democrats Reach Budget Bill Deal With Raft Of Oil, Gas Provisions,” Oil & Gas Journal, 7/28/2022)