Central Georgia News

Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) is co-sponsoring a hotly debated legislative proposal that would suspend the federal gasoline tax through 2022.

The bill, introduced by Sens. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH), would waive the 18.4-cent federal gas tax through the end of the year. An editorial in The Wall Street Journal criticized the measure, calling it hypocritical that Democrats such as Warnock are asking to loosen the restrictions of gasoline while otherwise being at odds with fossil fuel producers.

"Rising gas prices are a global issue caused by the behavior of Russia and other factors," Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) said on Feb. 8.

The Journal editorial said the proposed tax suspension is suspect because it would last through the end of 2022, right after the midterm elections. The editorial said Democrats are blaming the rise on many factors, but not on President Joe Biden, who has pushed to make things more difficult on fuel companies.

"The Biden Administration has slow-rolled oil and gas permits, halted lease sales on federal land, suspended leases in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and pushed financial regulation to deny capital to fossil fuels — all while activist progressive investors abet the industry's strangulation," the Journal editorial said.

A federal gas tax suspension would lower prices to where they were in October 2021, although they may not stay there, the Journal editorial said. Crude oil prices have surpassed $90 per barrel and could rise even more this summer.

"Senate Democrats who want to suspend the gas tax support President Biden's Build Back Better Act that would impose myriad new taxes on U.S. oil and gas," the Journal editorial said.

Gas prices in Georgia have risen to $3.53 per gallon of regular and $4.00 for diesel, AAA reported in its gas prices table. The national average currently sits at $3.66.