Obama and Energy Taxes

Topline Talking Points: 

• Today, American families and small businesses are hurting.  The wrong course would be to raise taxes as Barack Obama promises.

• American families face record gas and energy prices. Yet, Barack Obama has called for even higher energy taxes.

• Barack Obama has called for a tax on coal and natural gas - the two largest sources of electricity in our country.

• Barack Obama's windfall profits tax was last tried under Jimmy Carter and the result was only to make America more dependent upon foreign sources of oil and lead to higher prices at the pump. History has shown that a Windfall Profits Tax only reduces domestic oil production and increases our dependence on foreign oil. Barack Obama is promising that this tax will pay for many of his big government proposals but when last implemented, it brought in much less revenue than expected.

• Even Democrats says a Windfall Profits Taxes is bad energy policy.

• Barack Obama has a record of voting to increase taxes on energy, including natural gas purchases in Illinois.

• In the U.S. Senate, he voted for higher energy taxes that would have driven up the cost of oil and gas in America.

• In the Illinois State Senate, Barack Obama voted to tax natural gas purchased from out of state. This $42 million a year tax affected manufacturing and other employers.

• Barack Obama is offering change we just can't afford.

 
McCain On Energy Independence:

• John McCain believes energy security is critical to our national, economic and environmental security. John McCain will provide the leadership and make energy security a top national priority: diversify our energy mix, expand energy supply, and use energy more cleanly and efficiently.

• John McCain believes market forces, political instability, terrorism and environmental pressures make our dependence on foreign oil a strategic vulnerability.   

• National leadership and American innovation are the keys to achieving our security and environmental objectives. John McCain believes America, relying as always on the industry and imagination of a free people and the power and innovation of free markets, is capable of overcoming any energy, security, or environmental challenge.

• John McCain believes we have the opportunity to build a safer and thriving future with more diverse, reliable and clean energy. John McCain will set strong energy security and environmental standards and harness the power of the free market, American innovation and national resolve to achieve our objectives.

• As President, John McCain will propose a national energy strategy that will amount to a declaration of independence from energy insecurity. Promoting the diversification and conservation of our energy sources, it will break the dominance of oil in our transportation sector and substantially reduce the impact of our energy consumption on the planet.

• As President, John McCain will cut subsidies for industries that can stand on their own, cut tariffs that restrict competition and let competitive market forces pick winners. John McCain will encourage the development of infrastructure and the market growth necessary for new innovative products to compete, and let consumers choose the winners.

• John McCain believes nuclear power must be part of our energy policy moving forward. We must provide for safe nuclear waste storage and give host states or localities a proprietary interest.  When advanced recycling technologies turn used fuel into a valuable commodity, the public must share in its economic benefits.