East Arizona News

As the politics of climate change wave across the country and gas prices continue to climb, Democratic senators have been moving toward a suspension of the federal gasoline tax in an election year, and Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) is among the early supporters of the suspension. 

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that Kelly and Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) introduced a proposal to waive the 18.4-cent-per-gallon federal gasoline tax through the remainder of the year, which would carry past mid-term elections in the fall. Co-sponsoring the bill are Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) – who both face re-election campaigns in November – along with Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.). 

"I’ve been working hard in the Senate to lower costs for Arizona families, and that continues with my latest bill to suspend the federal gas tax for the rest of the year,” Kelly said in a post on Twitter, which also included a video stressing the importance of the legislation.

The legislation comes as the American Automobile Association (AAA) notes on its website that the cost of a gallon of regular gasoline in Arizona stands at $3.72 a gallon, while diesel is averaging $3.97. Amid the increasing prices, Democrats have been hesitant to lay blame on President Joe Biden for the spike in fuel costs. 

"Rising gas prices are a global issue caused by the behavior of Russia and other factors,” U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) said to the Wall Street Journal. 

However, the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board pointed out, Senate Democrats supporting the suspension of the gasoline tax also backed Biden’s Build Back Better Act, which would impose additional taxes on U.S. oil and gasoline. 

“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,” the paper’s editorial board wrote. 

Amid an increasingly hostile political landscape, the United States recently lost its title as the world’s swing producer of oil to Saudi Arabia; the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board noted that the U.S. has reduced its investment in oil, driving an increase in prices. 

The board also claimed that the administration and progressive investors pushed financial regulation that denied capital to fossil fuels. 

Moreover, the board noted that a federal Obama-appointed judge thwarted the sale of oil and gas drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico in January.