- Today I'm calling on Congress to suspend the federal gas tax
for the next 90 days.
- So, gas prices are hovering around $5 a gallon,
which is significantly more expensive
than they were this time last year.
There's currently a federal gas tax of 18¢
per gallon on gasoline, and 24¢ per gallon on diesel.
So that money all goes into, like, a highway trust fund --
it's crucial for spending on repairing roads,
um, building new highways, repairing bridges,
uh, you know, it's -- it's one of the most
essential pots of infrastructure money that we have left.
So, President Biden is talking about a three-month holiday
for drivers from the federal gas tax --
so, basically, during the summer season,
when gas prices traditionally bump up in the summer,
and especially now, with a lot of pent-up demand for travel,
the idea was to give people a break
on what they're paying for gas.
- We can bring down the price of gas
and give families just a little bit of relief.
- Obviously, the problem is, it's not clear that
if they make this gas tax holiday,
that the savings will actually go to consumers,
or they may just go to the big oil companies.
- The fact is that no president alone
can control the price of gasoline,
and we need more players at the table.
So, uh, the president is asking Congress to act,
he's asking states to act, he's asking, uh,
the oil and gas industry to do their part as well.
- Economists and oil industry analysts generally agree
that the way for gas prices to come down
is people need to drive less.
So, in this case, what happens is,
if you give this 18¢, um, per gallon -- or 24¢
per diesel gallon -- holiday, it sends a signal to drivers
that "we're bringin' the prices down,"
and then they go out and they keep driving,
and they drive more, and that puts more pressure
on the refineries to keep refining more,
and the supply gets tighter and tighter,
and ultimately the refineries just raise their prices,
and then the savings from these,
um, you know, this gas-tax holiday
just winds up making its way to them and not to drivers.
The White House did make a projection
on what this would cost if they do this three-month holiday;
the figure they came out with was $10 billion.
The problem, of course, is that, you know,
all of this takes the consent of Congress;
Congress is really not that interested in this.
- We're paying for something to give a break
to the oil companies --
that isn't even going to the consumer.
So, that's the con.
The pro is very showbiz --
"Okay, let's just do something, there it is" --
but it is not necessarily landing
in the pocket of the consumer.
- The Biden White House was not clear
on where exactly that $10 billion was going to come from.
So, the president has very few options
for actions that would lower gas prices.
- I fully understand that a gas-tax holiday alone
is not going to fix the problem.
- One thing he's tried is --
is taking, um, oil out of the strategic petroleum reserve,
you know, that we have a million barrels of oil
a day coming out of the strategic petroleum reserve,
but, you know, that's been going on, um,
since soon after the war started,
and the prices have been just going up and up.
And so that hasn't stopped gas prices from going.
The other thing the president, um, tried to do
is relaxing the rules
on how much ethanol you can blend into gas.
That had a negligible effect.
The president's out there talking about,
you know, he may use emergency powers,
or he could, um, to force more refinery production,
but the problem is,
the refineries are producing everything they can right now.
- The problem is, what they've done
is they've cut back on refining --
on refining -- and they say
because they don't want to get caught in the position
where eventually we're gonna move to alternative energy
and renewable energy, and they don't wanna get stuck.
Well, guess what -- there's a logical transition to be made.
- And so that leaves him just with very little, and that's --
that's how we wound up with this gas-tax holiday,
which there's real, um,
skepticism that it would even help,
but it just -- it just shows you just how weak a hand
that the White House has to play in,
you know, when it comes to trying to lower gas prices.
- I promise you I'm doing everything possible --
everything possible -- to bring the price of energy down --
gas prices down.
And I wanna make sure we all work on this together.