Gimmicks Won’t Solve Skyrocketing Gas Prices

Washington, D.C.-- U.S. Senator for Idaho Mike Crapo, Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, spoke on the Senate Floor about high gas prices and misguided proposals to lower them, like a federal gas tax holiday.  Crapo urged colleagues to support policies that unleash America’s domestic energy potential, reduce reliance on volatile foreign actors like Russia and deliver cost savings to middle-class families across the country.  

“The effort to blame [high gas prices] on what has happened in Ukraine overlooks the cause of the phenomenal rise in gas prices for a year before Putin even invaded.  Definitely, the invasion did increase pressures on gas prices, but the problem is this Administration’s policies have dramatically reduced the supply in the United States.  Americans across this country know how supply and demand impacts price. . . .

“The solution to rising gas prices is not a tax holiday, which would offer little relief but would threaten infrastructure investments and worsen our national debt situation.  Nor is the solution a tax on American companies who increase their production of oil and gas to try and help us become more energy independent.  Nor is it stimulus checks, which have the potential, as the past ones have, to increase gas prices even further and push inflation even higher.  Nor is it to encourage other hostile regimes to produce more oil.

“The only lasting solution to our current problems is to bolster American oil and gas production to replace not only Russian imports but to facilitate exports to support our allies, and end their dependence on Russia. . . .

“Republicans believe we can and should be doing more to unleash America’s domestic energy potential, reduce reliance on volatile foreign actors like Russia and deliver cost savings to middle-class families across the country.  Hardworking American families need real relief, not political gimmicks.”

Watch Crapo’s full remarks here, or read them below.

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Mister President, reserving the right to object, let me begin by saying that my friends and colleagues across the aisle are right about one thing: gas prices are incredibly high right now in this country. 

The effort to blame this on what has happened in Ukraine, however, overlooks the cause of the phenomenal rise in gas prices for a year before Putin even invaded.  Definitely, the invasion did increase pressures on gas prices, but the problem is this Administration’s policies have dramatically reduced the supply in the United States.  Americans across this country know how supply and demand impacts price. 

The gas tax holiday that is now being proposed is not a solution; it is a political gimmick that would not stop skyrocketing gas prices or inflation.  In fact, Larry Summers said in a Wall Street Journal podcast, ‘I think a gas tax idea is saved only by its triviality from being one of the worst public ideas of the decade.  It will have little effect over any reasonable horizon on prices, It will be counterproductive from an environmental point of view, it is the ultimate policy gimmick.’ 

Rather than accept responsibility for 14 months of reckless spending or the more than 40 percent increase in gas prices that had already occurred before the Russian invasion, Democrats want to blame higher gas prices on the Russian invasion or corporate greed. 

They also want to ignore the consequences of their relentless attacks on the American oil and gas industry, the Administration’s overly bureaucratic permit and regulatory process for domestic energy production and misguided policy decisions like canceling the Keystone XL pipeline. 

The solution to rising gas prices is not a tax holiday, which would offer little relief but would threaten infrastructure investments and worsen our national debt situation. 

Nor is the solution a tax on American companies who increase their production of oil and gas to try and help us become more energy independent. 

Nor is it stimulus checks, which have the potential, as the past ones have, to increase gas prices even further and push inflation even higher.   

Nor is it to encourage other hostile regimes to produce more oil. 

The only lasting solution to our current problems is to bolster American oil and gas production to replace not only Russian imports but to facilitate exports to support our allies, and end their dependence on Russia. 

Indeed, I, along with a number of my Republican colleagues, have sponsored proposals to enhance U.S. energy independence and undo many of President Biden’s misguided energy policies. 

Republicans believe we can and should be doing more to unleash America’s domestic energy potential, reduce reliance on volatile foreign actors like Russia and deliver cost savings to middle-class families across the country.   

Hardworking American families need real relief, not political gimmicks. 

That is why I oppose this gas tax holiday. 

I urge my Democrat colleagues to abandon the reckless spending and tax policies that already failed, which seem to be contemplated in the President’s newly introduced budget, and support proposals that will actually lower prices for everyday Americans. 

For those reasons, I object. 

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