Defeat LD 434!
This bill will put a 40 cents per gallon tax on heating oil and gasoline and other carbon-based fuels by 2027, giving the money to CMP and Emera to use for “rebates.”
This bill is designed to decrease Mainer’s use of carbon-based fuels like heating oil, gasoline, diesel, and kerosene by putting a tax on a gallon of fuel that will be passed on to the consumer. The tax is by “carbon content” of the fuel and is equivalent to about 5 cents per gallon of fuel in the first year of the tax. It increases each year, starting in 2021-22 at 5 cents a gallon until reaching the full tax of 40 cents a gallon in 2027-28.
It is laudable to protect the environment, but this bill imposes too great a cost on Maine’s people, especially our elderly on fixed incomes, our businesses and our commuters. Forty cents a gallon is too high a price to pay—on top of our gas tax—to fill your car or to heat your home in the winter. Furthermore, directing the money to the utilities that transmit and deliver electricity is not returning the funds to the people who are paying this tax out of pocket.
The hearing on this bill will be Feb. 28, at 1 p.m. in the Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee. You can contact the committee members and let them know your thoughts on this bill.
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