The Obama Administration has proposed a $10 per barrel tax on oil with the supposed purpose of funding some $32 billion annually in new transportation spending and to provide a direct incentive to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Although it has no chance of passing the present Congress, nonetheless the move is the starkest yet showing the president’s agenda. The oil tax is very regressive, falling hardest on working class families who have to drive to jobs, while it makes little sense even in the context of the Administration’s own published reports on climate change.
