Democrats' Energy Bill Adds Gasoline Tax

Human Events reports:

Senators John Kerry and Joe Lieberman unveiled a new energy bill on Wednesday which includes a new tax on gasoline, but the overall measure drew sharp criticism from both sides of the aisle.

“My first reaction to the Kerry-Lieberman bill is that it's the same old cap-and-trade scheme that the Senate has defeated three times since 2003,” said Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), top Republican on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. “In fact, it has a strong resemblance to the disastrous Waxman-Markey bill. Only now, along with paying skyrocketing electricity prices, consumers will pay a gas tax.”

“The Kerry-Lieberman cap-and-trade proposal is just like Waxman-Markey in another key respect: it will destroy millions of good-paying jobs, many of which will be lost in regions, such as the Midwest, South, and Great Plains, which depend on coal for electricity,” Inhofe said. “Given these facts, it's no wonder that this massive energy tax is opposed by Republicans and Democrats alike, and that is has virtually no chance of passing the Senate.”