Administration: Possibility of Windfall Profits Tax on Oil Companies Is Real
"The president’s preference is that the companies take this on without having Congress intervene," energy secretary says
President Biden's threat of imposing a windfall profits tax on petroleum companies is no idle gesture, according to a top member of his Cabinet.
Biden has more than once warned oil companies not to jack up the price at the pump, all the while generating high amounts of income.
Fuel prices have been a tough issue for Biden, as consumers feel the pain at the pump while they also have helped drive higher the wider inflation pinching pocketbooks.
“Well, number one, again, the president’s preference is that the companies take this on without having Congress intervene. But number two, it is true that our European colleagues, many of whom have — at least part of the G-7 — have adopted windfall profits tax, earlier in this country’s history, in the past couple decades, it was tried here as an excise tax, windfall profits tax,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said Thursday in a televised interview with CNBC. “Obviously, it would be crafted to encourage production if it were to happen, but obviously the president would work with Congress on what the shape of that is.
“But the point is, we need at this moment, when there is historic profits being made, to be able to provide some relief to those who are at the pump and/or increase more in production, which we have not seen to the extent that certainly those profits would belie,” Granholm added.
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