• 3 minutes e-car sales collapse
  • 6 minutes America Is Exceptional in Its Political Divide
  • 11 minutes Perovskites, a ‘dirt cheap’ alternative to silicon, just got a lot more efficient
  • 1 hour GREEN NEW DEAL = BLIZZARD OF LIES
  • 7 days If hydrogen is the answer, you're asking the wrong question
  • 1 day How Far Have We Really Gotten With Alternative Energy
  • 11 days Biden's $2 trillion Plan for Insfrastructure and Jobs
Copper Atoms Key to Sustainable Methanol Production

Copper Atoms Key to Sustainable Methanol Production

Researchers have successfully converted carbon…

TotalEnergies’ South Africa Ambitions: Wise or Risky?

TotalEnergies’ South Africa Ambitions: Wise or Risky?

Why would TotalEnergies be risking…

Charles Kennedy

Charles Kennedy

Charles is a writer for Oilprice.com

More Info

Premium Content

White House Considers Lifting Gas Tax To Lower Prices

  • Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm has said that the White House is considering all tools to lower the price of gasoline.
  • The Biden Administration's main priority is increasing supply, aware that a gas tax would hurt infrastructure spending.
  • The Energy Secretary will be meeting with the refinery industry this week in an attempt to boost capacity and output.
Gas Tax

The Biden administration is considering a temporary lifting of the federal gas tax as a tool to reduce prices at the pump, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said this weekend in an interview with CNN.

"The President is going to use all his authorities to do what he can to increase supply [of oil,]" the Energy Secretary told CNN, adding, in response to a question on why Biden doesn't lift the national gas tax, that "It is one of the tools."

However, Granholm said that for the time being, increasing supply is the number one priority, and direct relief for consumers is also being considered.

"Part of the challenging with the gas tax is that it funds the roads," Secretary Granholm said, explaining that revenues from this tax were part of the infrastructure bill that had just passed in Congress, and taking away the tax would interfere with the goals of that infrastructure bill.

High retail fuel prices have become a major headache for the Biden administration as they keep breaking records, earlier this month hitting an all-time high of over $5 per gallon across all states.

The situation prompted President Biden to slam the refining industry for not producing enough gasoline and diesel. In a letter sent earlier this month, Biden told refiners that "At a time of war, refinery profit margins well above normal being passed directly onto American families are not acceptable."

He went on to say, "The lack of refining capacity - and resulting unprecedented refinery profit margins - are blunting the impact of the historic actions my Administration has taken to address Vladimir Putin's Price Hike and are driving up costs for consumers."

Secretary Granholm, meanwhile, is meeting with refining industry executives this week to "discuss steps companies can take to increase refining capacity and output and reduce gas prices in the near term," per a spokesperson for the Department of Energy.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

ADVERTISEMENT

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:


Download The Free Oilprice App Today

Back to homepage





Leave a comment
  • Lee James on June 21 2022 said:
    "Climate can wait; we need more fossil fuel, not less! The Biden administration is doing everything it can to protect the American consumer, and yet have enough petroleum for Europe to get by on."

    Who could have forecast this scenario?! It is crazy.

    But the climate may end having some protection if demand slows due to high fuel prices. Americans may adjust lifestyle. Biden may decide that there is really not much he can do. Maybe Americans will come to see this as a perfect storm of events that basically got in under the radar. The gods are something else again these days.

Leave a comment




EXXON Mobil -0.35
Open57.81 Trading Vol.6.96M Previous Vol.241.7B
BUY 57.15
Sell 57.00
Oilprice - The No. 1 Source for Oil & Energy News