President Obama recently unveiled his plan for a $10-per-barrel tax on oil, which would raise prices at the pump by 24 cents per gallon, and the American Energy Alliance cited data in a recent online commentary that suggests such a move would stifle U.S. growth potential.
Obama previously said in 2012 that “we can’t just drill our way to lower gas prices.” However, despite the president's previous claims, innovative energy companies have constructed new technology in the past four years, with a 52 percent increase in U.S. oil production, helping to bring oil prices down by 70 percent, with gas prices falling from $3.72 in 2012 to $1.73 in 2016.
Global oil production has soared since 2008, with 82 percent of this surge coming from U.S. producers, causing gas prices to fall 50 percent since February 2012 and giving poorer communities fewer budget worries.
The AEA said in the opinion piece that Obama's oil-tax plan would be counter-productive.
"The oil tax sums up the president’s energy policy, which has consistently ignored the benefits of promoting affordable, reliable energy production — and endeavored to shut it down."
The AEA cites a study conducted by the Institute for Energy Research has found that if federal lands were opened to energy exploration, the annual gross domestic product of the U.S. would rise to $127 billion, annual wages would rise by $32 billion over seven years and 552,000 new jobs would be created annually.
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