Heidi Alexander: “What I hope the President does not do tonight, No. 1, is use the oil spill as an excuse to pass a national energy tax…”

“What I hope the President does not do tonight, No. 1, is use the oil spill as an excuse to pass a national energy tax, collecting hundreds of billions of dollars from Americans and driving jobs overseas looking for cheap energy. The so-called cap-and-trade national energy tax is not appropriate here because it has nothing to do with cleaning up this oil spill. Not only does it drive jobs overseas, it also does not work when applied to fuel. We have had plenty of testimony before the Environment and Public Works Committee. It would simply raise the gasoline tax but it is not going to change behavior enough to reduce the amount of gasoline consumed or carbon emitted.”