Never doubt Republicans' ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory...
Washington Times (5/8/22) column: "Two Senate Republicans — Kevin Cramer of North Dakota and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana — seem to be taking West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin III’s latest legislative effort as a moment to advocate for higher energy taxes for consumers. That sounds crazy, right? Who would want to increase the price of energy when oil and natural gas prices are two or three times as much as they were a year ago and especially when they show no sign of abating? It turns out these senators favor something called a carbon border adjustment tax. It is actually a pretty simple mechanism. If the United States imports energy that has the potential to create greater emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide than our own domestic energy, a tax would be imposed on those imports...There are, obviously, a couple of problems with this idea. First, and most destructively, it creates a backdoor tax on energy. Everything made, everything transported and everything that keeps people warm or provides electricity invariably involves the use of natural gas, oil or coal. No matter where or when it is imposed, a 'carbon dioxide' tax is a tax on energy. Make no mistake. Consumers will pay this tax; businesses will just pass along the cost. Second, as a practical and legal matter, an import tax on carbon dioxide would require the U.S. to impose a tax on our own domestically produced energy and goods. Trade agreements are going to preclude us from pulling a number out of thin air. This is, of course, the real goal of the enterprise — to impose an energy tax on the American economy by whatever means."
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"If Exxon, Chevron, Shell coordinate to restrict gas supply & spike prices, we’d call that an antitrust violation and prosecute the alleged felons. But when their top shareholders like BlackRock & Vanguard force them to do the same, we call it 'ESG' instead. Funny how that works"
– Vivek Ramaswamy
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