Higher Taxes = Recipe for Disaster

Jane Van Ryan
Posted May 11, 2009

API issued a statement today from President and CEO Jack Gerard regarding taxes in the administration's "Analytical Perspectives" budget document released this morning.

As this document explains, the administration is proposing to reinstate the Superfund tax on petroleum and repeal several long-standing tax incentives. (See pages 265-276.) In response, Jack Gerard said:

"The new taxes are anti-jobs, anti-consumer, and anti-energy. They will depress investment in new domestic oil and gas projects, weakening the nation's energy security. Six million Americans depend on the oil and natural gas industry for their jobs. Raising taxes in a time of economic decline is a recipe for disaster. Historically, new taxes hurt businesses, threaten jobs, and lead to higher prices for consumers. Higher energy taxes that reduce production and increase costs take money from every American household. We need to get the nation on the road to economic recovery. New taxes on domestic energy production make that task substantially harder."