Congressman Schiff proposes plan to ease pain at the pump
Southern Californians continue to struggle at the pump as gas prices keep breaking records day after day.
"Taking all of my money from me and my kids — $60," said driver George Michael. "I used to put $20, now I put $60."
Pleading for relief as gas prices continue to stay above $6 throughout Southern California, Congressman Adam Schiff believes he may have the solution to ease the pain at the pump.
"Price gouging by oil companies have been steadily driving up the price of gasoline," he said.
On Tuesday, Schiff introduced a bill to first eliminate the federal gas tax until end the end of 2023, knocking down the prices of gas across the country by about 18 cents.
"Anything helps," said driver Ashley. "18 cents is 18 cents."
However, since the federal gas tax funds transportation and mass transit projects Schiff plans to offset the cost with the part of his proposal which would tax big oil companies after what he calls "excessive windfall profits."
"This tells us it is not all supply chain problems. This is not all the war in Ukraine," the congressman said. "This is a lot of oil companies enriching themselves in a time when the public is really vulnerable."
Schiff said some oil companies saw first-quarter profits soar more than 300% compared to the same time frame in 2021. The congressman claimed that shell made $9.1 billion in the first quarter of 2022, compared to $3.2 billion last year.
"They would lose half their profit," he said. "Anything over more than 10% greater than what they were making pre-pandemic would be taxed as a windfall profit."
While drivers appreciated the effort, they were skeptical if the plan would work.
"I heard tax this, tax that," said Michael. "You cannot beat the corporations. They run the world."
Schiff also said that he expected opposition from the oil companies but seemed unbothered since it will give a little relief to drivers.
"I imagine they are not going to like it very much and that's ok with me," he said.
