Oil industry: Obama plan to tax oil makes no sense

Jack Gerard, president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute trade group, said he believes the proposed tax, to be included in Obama’s fiscal 2017 budget proposal Tuesday, is a foolhardy attempt to cement Obama’s environmental legacy before he leaves office.

“It’s confusing, it doesn’t make any sense and frankly it’s discriminatory,” he said. “It hurts those who can afford it the least.

“You’d think with something this significant … someone would have taken some time to think it through before they rolled it out.”

Gerard said he’s expecting Obama to outline a vision for the future in the budget that attacks the oil and gas industry.

Speaking with reporters Monday, Gerard touted the falling cost of energy in the United States that has been sparked by the boom in domestic oil and natural gas production. Gerard especially played up the role of natural gas in cheapening prices for energy in homes while also burning cleaner and releasing less carbon emissions.

Gerard said the Obama administration wants instead to leave all oil and gas in the ground.

“It appears the administration’s last year is dedicated to furthering an extremist agenda at the very real expense of the middle class and low-income families,” he said.

The budget, which API has only briefly spoke with the administration about, may set out a path for the country to squander the energy riches it has discovered recently, Gerard warned.

He said Obama’s vision for the country’s energy future plays favorites and prioritizes certain types of energy over others, even within the renewable energy sector.

He called on the president to show a commitment to an all-of-the-above energy strategy, saying that a move away from fossil fuels is simply “unrealistic” and would cause the U.S. to once again depend on other countries for energy resources.

“It sets up a false choice that suggests we can just do away with the abundant energy that we have today,” he said.