Dems’ Green New Tax Will Damage Alaska’s Energy Future

August 9, 2022

No matter what the mainstream media might say about the “Inflation Reduction Act” that passed the U.S. Senate last weekend, when it comes to Alaska, we’re losing.

The winners?  For starters, the radical environmentalists who prefer that Alaska’s oil and gas remain in the ground.  While the Act directs the federal government to hold lease sales that the Biden Administration had avoided so far in his Presidency, there’s no reason for the eco-zealots to move the permitting process along after the lease sales.  That means continued, long-term delays in bringing our oil and gas to market.

Another winner?  Big government.  Forgetting the gargantuan increase to (and enforcement charge and capabilities of) the IRS, which in and of itself is astonishing, the growth in bureaucracy needed to oversee the new climate package will be mind-blowing.  Increased power in the Swamp of Washington, D.C. tends to be historically bad for Alaska.

One notable loser in all of this: you and your pocketbook.  Forget Biden’s pledge that no American making less than $400,000 a year in income would see a tax increase.  Each and every one of us, regardless of the size of our paychecks, will be subsidizing the growth of government, the higher cost of (less-reliable) ‘green’ energy and the increased federal spending (debt) associated with the “Reduction Act”.

Power The Future commends the 50 senators who voted unanimously against the boondoggle, 750-page Act.  We can only assume Nancy Pelosi and the slim majority in the House will follow suit – although there is still time for intelligent, country-over-party representatives to vote “no” – and President Biden will see the Act hit his desk soon.

Should that happen, it will then be time to hold folks who voted for it accountable in November.