Senate Democrats Refuse To A Waste Good Crisis: Move To Quintriple Offshore Oil Taxes

The BP oil spill in the Gulf has lead to a resurgence of anti-oil sentiments in the US. The "drill, baby, drill" chants have been completely forgotten by many people, after they saw helpless birds covered in oil on the news and in the papers over the last few weeks.

Now, this has been the pattern throughout our more recent history. When gas prices skyrocket, people want to drill until there is an accident. Then, people's desire for more oil will dwindle until gas prices go up, again.

We are currently in the swing away from drilling. A recent Rasmussen poll shows that support for offshore drilling has noticeably fallen, since the BP oil disaster.

The Democrats in the Senates have decided to take advantagetake advantage of the sudden shift in the public opinion on the subject:

Senate Democrats are moving to quintuple the tax that oil companies pay into an oil spill liability fund.

The move would raise $15 billion over the coming decade as Congress seeks to shore up the fund in the wake of the catastrophic spill in the Gulf of Mexico. But it's also being used to ease a tax hike passed by the House on investment fund managers.

The new legislation would raise the tax on oil produced offshore from 8 cents to 41 cents per barrel. That's nine cents higher than legislation that passed the House last month.

The tax changes are being made as the Senate again takes up grab-bag legislation extending unemployment benefits and a variety of expired tax breaks enjoyed by both individuals and businesses Senate Democrats are moving to quintuple the tax that oil companies pay into an oil spill liability fund.

The move would raise $15 billion over the coming decade as Congress seeks to shore up the fund in the wake of the catastrophic spill in the Gulf of Mexico. But it's also being used to ease a tax hike passed by the House on investment fund managers.

The new legislation would raise the tax on oil produced offshore from 8 cents to 41 cents per barrel. That's nine cents higher than legislation that passed the House last month.

The tax changes are being made as the Senate again takes up grab-bag legislation extending unemployment benefits and a variety of expired tax breaks enjoyed by both individuals and businesses

A rise in taxes in oil will ultimately cause gas prices to go up, again. This will further cripple the economy and prevent it from quickly recovering from this recession. If this is enacted, $4 gas may seem cheap compared to what is coming.

I'll concede that the massive cost for the Gulf clean-up should be shouldered by BP, but why should every other oil company and, ultimately every American, suffer for one company's incompetence. It's unrealistic to think that gas won't go up at all, as a result of the cost of the spill, but we don't have to make a bad situation even worse.