But it Will Hurt the Poor

The main argument I get from the left is that the tax is regressive and will hurt the poor.

If one looks at the tax and the rebate it is moderately progressive because the poor, on average, use less energy but will get the same rebate thateveryone else does. There is a rough correlation between how much people make and how much energy they use. Wealthy people tend to drive more and bigger cars, travel more for vacation, live in bigger homes and have more homes to live in. Poorer people are more likely to live in cities, in apartments, and use public transportation. In addition everyone saves from the pretax drop in energy prices.

Will there be some small number of people who have high energy costs and don’t have the means to make the adjustment of higher energy prices? Probably. However, that number will be extremely small, be far outweighed by the number of poor who benefit from a working energy policy, and the overall benefits to our environmental, economic, and homeland security.

OPEC and the oil companies are already taxing us. It is time we taxed ourselves and reaped the benefits.