A new oil tax proposed by the Obama Administration would addd an undue burden on the already stressed industry.
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In a last ditch effort do do all he can to squash the fossil fuel industry, President Obama last week proposed a new tax on oil as part of his final budget request of his tenure in office.
If passed, oil companies would be required to pay a per barrel fee, that would eventually be as high as $10 on every barrel. The money would go to fund $300 billion on emissions-reduction programs and various “clean” transportation projects such high speed trains, mass transit and self-driving cars.
The move brought immediate criticism from many analysts and industry leaders with oil mogul T. Boone Pickens tweeting its the “dumbest idea ever” and that the “$35 billion/year oil tax would bankrupt O&G industry.”
Steven Kopits of CNBC says “I can believe the White House is bad at math; I doubt they would conceive of a tax directly intended to undermine U.S. energy independence and gut a business already facing a historic recession. That would be insanity itself.”
The president faces a tough sell in the Republican-led Congress where members have already come out saying the proposal would never even get a vote.