Doomed to Repeat Energy Tax History? (Part 8 in a 10-Part Series)
Nicolas Loris /
A national energy tax, which masks as a cap-and-trade program, could produce a substantial public backlash. According to a recent CNN poll, a majority of Americans already believe that such a job-killing energy tax that produces little or no environmental gain is not a good idea. This is not the first time our nation’s policymakers have toyed with an unpopular energy tax, though.
Rewind to 1993. With a large majority and emboldened by the election of President Bill Clinton, House Democrats advocated and passed (barely) a national energy tax known as the BTU tax. The goal was to tax certain energy sources based on the unit of energy production known as the British Thermal Unit. The thin margin of victory accurately reflected the reluctance of many policymakers to proceed with such a misguided policy. The Senate’s refusal to even consider the bill only served to highlight the unpopular nature of the tax.
Bring it back to 2009. House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) is pushing for an aggressive national energy tax that has many of his Democratic colleagues quite anxious. These concerns are not new but Chairman Waxman is adamant about pushing his bill forward to meet his self-imposed Memorial Day deadline, House Democrats have sincere concerns over the current structure of the Waxman-Markey cap and trade bill. Congressman Jim Matheson, “sees several ways this bill could result in a huge ‘income transfer’ from his state to those less fossil-fuel dependent.”