TPA Slams President Biden’s Latest Comments on Potential Windfall Tax

For Immediate Release                                                                             Contact: Abigail Graham: (202) 417-7235

November 1, 2022                                                                                                                          

Washington, D.C. – Today, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) expressed concern with President Biden’s recent remarks regarding American oil and gas companies. On Monday, October 31, 2022, President Biden accused oil companies of “war profiteering”, as the administration looks to Congress to pass a new tax on the companies’ windfall profits.

In response, TPA’s Executive Director, Patrick Hedger, offered the following comment:

“A windfall profit tax (WPT) on oil is a tried-and-true policy boondoggle.

“As any energy policy analyst knows, oil prices are determined by global markets based on supply and demand, not set as an arbitrary number by individual companies to scalp a profit. A WPT on American companies would yield, as it did in the 1980’s, less domestic oil production, increased reliance on foreign sources, and higher domestic prices, the consequences of which are ultimately passed to consumers.

“Ironically, it is the Biden administration that is trying to profiteer off their war on American energy. Rather than concerning itself with the profits of private companies, the administration should look to enhance the industry’s ability to innovate and produce. Wayward tax policy cannot and should not be used as a fill-in for the lack of political willpower on meaningful NEPA permitting reform, which would put domestic energy producers in a regulatory environment where they can succeed.

“The responsibility for the inevitable rise in consumer prices that will come as a result of a WPT would sit squarely on the shoulders of an administration that continues to straddle the energy industry through unnecessary regulations.”

###

Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to educating the public through the research, analysis and dissemination of information on the government’s effects on the economy.