Consider it a declaration of war.
Last week, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner declared his boss’s full intentions to tax the living daylights out of American oil and gas companies. The justification? These companies cause “Global Warming” and are therefore an abomination. In Mr. Geithner’s own words:
“We don’t believe it makes sense to significantly subsidize the production and use of sources of energy (like oil and gas) that are dramatically going to add to our climate change (problem). We don’t think that’s good economic policy and we think changing those incentives is good for the country.”
There are two things profoundly wrong with this scenario.
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First of all, the fact that a card-carrying tax cheat is dictating the nation’s weightiest tax policies is an abomination in and of itself.
Secondly, basing such monumental energy policies on the false premise of “Global Warming”—reinforced, of course, with junk science—should be a warning to all. This is particularly frustrating given the utter—and utterly unreported—lack of a consensus on the subject of anthropogenic climate change.
Nevertheless, the Obama consortium insists on punishing the climate-sinners. And what a punishment it is.
In a nutshell, the tax policies in the Obama administration’s budget—as articulated by Mr. Geithner—would gut the oil and gas companies in two ways. The first would be through a new 13 percent excise tax on all oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico. The budget would also pin the companies with a $4 per acre annual fee on drilling leases in the Gulf that are regarded as “nonproducing.”
And even though “Global Warming” is the outward justification, the truth is that Barack Obama and his followers are concealing a profound inward hostility towards realistic, American-produced energy.
As many may remember, when asked in a June 2008 interview with CNBC what he thought about the high gas prices plaguing the nation at the time, then-presidential candidate Barack Obama smugly responded:
“I think that I would have preferred a gradual adjustment.”
Notice that the soon-to-be President didn’t decry the sky-high costs of fuel. Nor did he express much sympathy over the fact that Americans’ budgets and overall lifestyles were under assault by the $4.00 a gallon price at the pump.
Rather, Mr. Obama callously wished the gas prices hadn’t gone up quite so fast.
And who can forget Mr. Obama’s expressed disdain and embarrassment regarding the comfortable American way of life? Last May, the junior Illinois senator stated:
“We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times…and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK.”
That being said, with Mr. Geithner’s pledge to tax the oil and gas companies into submission, the Obama Administration is merely matching its anti-energy campaign rhetoric with policy. At least this is one campaign promise to which Barack Obama has stayed loyal.
It is fast becoming clear that the Obama administration wants gas prices to rise and wants to burden the average American energy consumer. After all, the inevitable result of Mr. Obama’s new oil and gas tax hikes will be an inflation of the price at the pump—probably into the double-digit range—and a deflation of the average taxpayer’s wallet.
And Mr. Obama’s previously expressed acceptance of $4.00 a gallon costs means that when these gas prices rise, he will do absolutely nothing to reign them in.
Rest assured, though. Mr. Obama—and his tax cheat advisor Mr. Geithner—will relentlessly pursue “Global Warming” until it is brought to justice—just like the evil oil and gas companies.
