U S President Barack Obama has proposed a $10-a-barrel oil tax to be phased in over the next five years in order to fund a variety of new “clean transport” infrastructure initiatives.
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While more people are joining the labor force, too many Americans are still shut out of the economy due to after-effects of the recession that ended in mid-2009, Obama said.
President Barack Obama’s surprise proposal on Thursday to charge a $10 a barrel fee on crude oil, equivalent to one-third the going price, drew a predictably swift response from traders and industry figures: Are you joking?
In the a year ago of his presidency, Mr. Obama has said the country must stop subsidising the “dirty” fossil fuels of the past and focus on clean, renewable fuels that do not exacerbate climate change.
It will create more good paying jobs, not by subsidizing the past, but by investing in the future and that’s why United States is going to be placing a big emphasis on clean energy, he stressed.
The president says those recent numbers are inconvenient for Republicans who are talking down the economy. “This isn’t simply a tax on oil companies, it’s a tax on American consumers who are now benefiting from low home heating and transportation costs”.
For example, this week the President proposed a ridiculous $10 per barrel tax on oil.
It was the third time in as many days that the White House has tried to use the budget to promote Obama’s climate change agenda. In addition, average hourly earnings for all private employees during the past six months rose 2.9% at an annual rate, the fastest pace since the recovery began. Lower gas prices have provided a huge windfall and are putting money back into the wallets of American households.
The new tax would add an estimated 25 cents a gallon to gas prices, according to traders and analysts.
Obama is scheduled to present his annual budget to the Congress on Tuesday. The president said the report shows “Americans are working”.
White House deputy director of domestic policy, James Kvaal said, “Employers can define those skills and help colleges develop the curriculum that teaches them”. “We’ve got numbers that we can consider”, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said earlier this week.
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Yet, some energy consultants argue that because gas taxes have not been raised in more than two decades, this tax would merely be a “return to standard practice” set by the Eisenhower administration in the 1950s.
