As Dems Take Aim at Gas Prices, Progressives Say Big Oil Windfall Tax the ‘Winning Policy’

As congressional Democrats held a press conference Thursday to discuss legislative proposals to reduce gasoline prices and crack down on fossil fuel corporations that are raking in record amounts of money amid Russia’s war on Ukraine, a progressive group redoubled its call for a windfall profits tax on Big Oil—calling it the “right solution” that is popular and “already under their noses.”

“Big Oil has profiteered and exploited the marketplace,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters. “They are hoarding the windfall while keeping prices high at the pump.”

Recent polls showed that large parts of the U.S. electorate are concerned about the escalating cost of energy, food, and other basic goods. Moreover, they disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy as his party looks to maintain control of both chambers of Congress during the upcoming midterm elections.

Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called oil companies “vultures” and said that legislation to lower gas prices “is at the very top of our list.”

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) told reporters that Democratic lawmakers are working on a bill that aims at remedying the problem. The bill would give the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state attorneys general increased authority, including civil penalty authority, to go after oil companies and retailers that are gouging their customers.

As Reuters reported:

The FTC already has the power to take action against those who manipulate wholesale oil markets by making it illegal to report false information to inflate prices.

Legislation now being drafted by Senate and House committees would double the penalty for manipulating these markets to $2 million per day per violation.

Neither Schumer nor Pelosi indicated when the bill will be voted upon or how much money it could save consumers if signed into law. It is also unclear if the measure will attract enough Republican support to clear the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster rule.

Last month, congressional Democrats introduced the bicameral Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax in an attempt to rein in alleged price gouging by fossil fuel corporations, as Common Dreams reported.

According to survey data released just days after the legislation was unveiled, 80% of U.S. voters—including 73% of Republicans—support the measure. The measure would hit large fossil fuel companies with a per-barrel tax equal to 50% of the difference between the current price of a barrel of oil and the average price per barrel between 2015 and 2019. An estimated $45 billion in annual revenue would be redistributed to U.S. households in the form of quarterly rebates.

Since consumer demand returned following a brief pandemic-driven decline in 2020, shareholders have pressured oil producers to suppress production to drive prices higher. Last year, as average gas prices in the U.S. steadily climbed—hitting around $3.40 per gallon in December 2021, up from $2.10 a year before—25 of the world’s biggest fossil fuel corporations raked in a record $205 billion in profits.

Oil and gas companies have hiked prices even further after Biden’s early March announcement of a U.S. ban on imports of Russian fossil fuels. This led to growing accusations of war profiteering. The average price for a gallon of gas in the U.S. is now hovering around $4.14. As a result, petroleum giants are bragging about their “best quarter ever.”

Despite being brought to Capitol Hill to testify before Congress about their role in jacking up gas prices, U.S. fossil fuel executives have not been shy about how they are capitalizing on the crisis in Ukraine.

After rewarding themselves and other investors with billions of dollars worth of stock buybacks and dividend bumps last year, industry leaders are on track to do more of the same in 2022.

Earlier this week, Schumer said from the Senate floor that “there is something deeply wrong, deeply wrong, about seeing the largest oil and gas companies in the world drench top executives and wealthy shareholders with cash while Americans are struggling at the pump.”

Originally published at Commondreams.org, written by Kenny Stancil.