To combat that sticker shock, some politicians in Washington, Republicans and Democrats alike, are proposing a federal gas tax holiday. The federal gas tax is 18.4 cents per gallon, and it is collected in every state in the union.  (Maine adds another 29.1 cents per gallon, but that would not be included in any federal ‘tax holiday’.)

The purposes, ostensibly, is to encourage more people to drive during the summer, especially to encourage people who drive to their vacation destinations.

On its face, a gas tax holiday would seemingly benefit Maine, which is an easy day’s drive from most of the East Coast’s big cities, such as New York, Philidelphia, and Boston.

However, consider the reality.

Over the course of the summer, the gas tax holiday would save an average driver a mere $30 ... the cost of about half a tank of gas for most cars.  That’s hardly enough to encourage or discourage people to take a vacation - the average cost of a plane ticket has gone up far more than that.  The cost of a trunk full of groceries for the cottage or camp has gone up more than that. 

100% of the federal gas tax goes into the federal highway fund, with about three cents earmarked for mass transit.  That’s money that pays for highway repair, bridge repair, and upgrades to the nation’s crumbling highway and public transportation infrastructure.  None of it ... not a cent ... can be used for any other purpose.  Since Maine, as a state, has a greater highway mileage to population ratio than many states, we get a bigger share back per capita than do many other states.  This is money we need to fix our aging bridges and crumbling roads, and to help Maine regain its once proud tradition of public transportation.   

In any case, a tax holiday is a band-aid on an arterial wound.  The total of 47.5 cents we pay per gallon in taxes is not the main cause of our pain.  It’s the price of gas itself, fixed in commodities trading rooms far away from the local gas stations.
Today, Shell Oil announced its first quarter profits.  It posted a record net first quarter profit of $9.08 billion, up from $7.28 billion over the same period in 2007.

Between 2001 and 2007, profits for Shell and the other ‘Big Five’ oil companies- ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, BP and Chevron, rose from just over $40 billion to more than $123 billion.  In 2007, ExxonMobil alone reaped more than $41 billion in profits, the largest profit in history for a U.S. company and more than we spent to build roads, provide veterans with health care or on homeland security.

In the long term, our solution must be to wean ourselves off oil altogether.  In the shorter term, our elected officials should be demanding a windfall tax for any company that so clearly gouges the American people, putting American farmers, truckers, and small businesses out of business for the benefit of greedy stockholders.

It is time for the House and Senate to roll back the billions of giveaways to big oil, and start helping alternative energy providers and individual home and business owners pave the way to the new energy future.