Kerry-Lieberman = A $3.4 Trillion Gas Tax

Press Release

U.S. Senators Kit Bond (R-MO) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) today unveiled the findings of their new report, Kerry-Lieberman: A Multi-Trillion Dollar Gas Tax, which details $3.4 trillion in new gas taxes American consumers, workers, businesses and travelers stand to pay under the Kerry-Lieberman bill.

"Americans know that cap-and-trade equals higher energy prices," said Senator Bond. "The only difference with this latest cap-and-trade bill is that they included a new gas tax, this one to the tune of $3.4 trillion."

"It is so important that the public learn just how large a burden the Kerry-Lieberman cap and trade bill would place on American families and small businesses -- $3.4 trillion in new taxes," said Senator Hutchison. "Americans will have added taxes just to commute to work, drive their children to school, and run their businesses."

Despite an unemployment rate hovering just under 10 percent and in the face of continued opposition from the American people, Democrats in Congress continue to push cap-and-trade schemes filled with a variety of job-killing, massive new energy taxes. The Hutchison-Bond report shows in detail how the Kerry-Lieberman contains a gas tax that will raise the price of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel consumers use every day to get to work or the grocery store, farmers use to operate their equipment and get goods to market, and businesses use in day-to-day operations.

Under the gas tax proposed by Senators Kerry and Lieberman, the government will periodically estimate the amount of fuel the nation consumes and multiply that by the amount of carbon in the fuel to determine the fee to be paid. Ironically, the oil companies, whom Senators favoring the Kerry-Lieberman proposal often target, will pay very little, instead passing the cost onto consumers of all income levels in the form of higher prices at the pump.

Using predictions on future U.S. fuel consumption from the U.S. Energy Information Administration and the amount of carbon dioxide estimated by the Environmental Protection Agency to be emitted from each gallon of transportation fuel, the report finds that the Kerry-Lieberman gas tax will hit hard all American consumers. The report estimates that the gas tax proposed by Senators Kerry and Lieberman will cost American consumers $1.87 trillion in new taxes on gasoline, will cost truckers and others who use diesel fuel $1.08 trillion, and will cost air travelers $425 billion in new taxes on jet fuel. Bringing the total cost to American consumers to $3.4 trillion.

As Senators Kerry and Lieberman and their allies in Congress often argue higher energy prices will result in less demand, studies show that gasoline must rise to $7 a gallon before the American people will reduce consumption enough to produce a 17 percent cut in emissions. The Hutchison-Bond report shows that the Kerry-Lieberman gas tax will be short of $7, thus raising prices for consumers while doing nothing to substantially reduce emissions.

The report released today by Senator's Bond and Hutchison follows a similar report released last year which showed the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade legislation would result in a similar $3.6 trillion gas tax. Rather than impose new taxes on struggling American consumers, workers, farmers, and businesses that will do little to reduce carbon emissions, Bond and Hutchison continue to advocate increased investment in proven technologies like nuclear, wind, solar, hybrid, plug-in, and electric vehicles as well as low-carbon biofuels where it makes economic sense.

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