Kaine & Colleagues Introduce Bill to Provide Consumers Further Relief at the Gas Pump

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Tim Kaine joined Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and other colleagues in introducing the Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act to crack down on profiteering and price gouging by large oil companies and provide consumers further relief at the gas pump.

“I am glad to see Virginia’s average gas prices fall well below $3.50 a gallon and remain focused on doing all I can to keep prices low,” said Kaine. “That should include taxing excess profits from big oil companies, who have taken advantage of international crises like the pandemic and the war in Ukraine to hike their prices, and sending that money back to Virginia families. This legislation is a commonsense step to protect Virginians from that kind of dangerous price gouging at the pump in the future.”

Last year, gas prices briefly surpassed $4.86 per gallon, squeezing the budgets of Virginians and Americans across the country. The five largest publicly traded oil companies – Exxon Mobil, Chevron, BP, Shell, and TotalEnergies – hauled in record pre-tax profits totaling $264.3 billion in Fiscal Year 2022. 

Specifically, the Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act would:

• Tax the largest oil companies who produce or import at least 300,000 barrels of oil per day at a per-barrel quarterly tax equal to 50 percent of the difference between the current price per barrel and the average price per barrel between 2015 and 2019. With oil priced at roughly $90-100 per barrel, this levy would raise approximately $48.1 billion per year.
• Use the revenue raised from the windfall profits to provide quarterly rebates to single filers who earn $75,000 or less and joint filers who earn $150,000 or less.

The Senate legislation is cosponsored by Senators Alex Padilla (D-CA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Bob Casey (D-PA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Edward Markey (D-MA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Jack Reed (D-RI). 

Full text of the bill is available here. 

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