THE post-Katrina gasoline-price increase seems to have unleashed madness in some GOP quarters. In a remarkable press conference in late October, House Energy Committee chairman Joe Barton and Speaker Dennis Hastert demanded that the oil industry use its 2005 profits to build new refineries and pipelines-and they threatened the imposition of a windfall-profit tax if the oil industry refused. In the Senate, majority leader Bill Frist launched a public inquisition of the oil sector and is actively encouraging discussions on a windfall-profit tax; he is also recommending a new federal law against gasoline price gouging, and asking the industry to give “voluntary” assistance to the poor. And according to the American Petroleum Industry, the Bush administration is quietly testing the waters on a similar windfall-profit tax, whose profits would be used to expand federal energy assistance to low-income households.
Gasoline prices have dropped more than 75 cents per gallon since their post-Katrina peak, but on the heels of the oil industry’s multi-billion-dollar quarterly profit reports it’s not surprising that many politicians have suddenly resorted to histrionics. What is surprising, however, is the number of conservatives who have happily cast their lot with the anti-oil contingent.
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