IER: Obama Reversal on Windfall Profits Tax Good News For Consumers, Economy

Release:

Washington , DC – Institute for Energy Research (IER) president Thomas Pyle issued the following statement [yesterday] afternoon subsequent to an announcement from the president-elect that the incoming administration will not seek to resurrect a Windfall Profits Tax plan designed to make American energy more expensive and difficult to produce:

“A windfall profits tax is bad policy at any price, and the history books are filled with examples to prove it. The president-elect’s decision to reverse course on imposing this Carter-era burden on those who explore for and produce American energy is a heartening development - both for consumers and an economy struggling to claw its way out of recession. And although the president-elect’s spokesman was eager to cite oil’s recent drop in price as the reason for this shift in policy, I hope the real explanation can be traced back to the millions of American jobs that would be lost under such a tax, and the billions of barrels of oil we’d lose the ability to produce as a result of it.”

NOTE: The Houston Chronicle reported [yesterday], quoting a spokesman for the president-elect, that the incoming administration will no longer move forward on plans to target America ’s energy producers with a punitive Windfall Profits Tax, reversing an earlier position and suggesting the price of crude oil was a key reason for the switch.