Providence, RI – Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) cheered remarks by President Joe Biden today urging the fossil fuel industry to stop its reckless profiteering and lower energy prices. Whitehouse is the lead Senate sponsor of the Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax, a bill to claw back the largest oil companies’ excess profits and return them to American families. Whitehouse issued the following statement on the President’s remarks:
“Big Oil is exploiting Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and a cartel-driven market to rake in tens of billions of dollars, and the American people are paying the price. As the President made clear today, the fossil fuel industry’s price gouging must stop. It’s time for Congress to stand up to Big Oil and bring relief to consumers, instead of corporate stock buybacks and bonuses. My Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax would claw back the industry’s excessive profits and send that money directly back to hardworking American families.”
While Whitehouse’s Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax, introduced in March, has been stalled by fossil-fuel-funded Republicans, conservatives in the UK proceeded with their own oil excess profits tax attacking corporate profiteering. Under Whitehouse’s bill, large oil companies that produce or import at least 300,000 barrels of oil per day would pay 50 percent of the difference between the current price of a barrel of oil and the pre-pandemic average price. Revenue will be returned to consumers in the form of a quarterly rebate for single filers who earn less than $75,000 and joint filers who earn less than $150,000.
Meaghan McCabe, (401) 453-5294
