5
#000000
#FFFFFF
A customer pumps gas into their car at a gas station on May 18, 2022 in Petaluma, California.
(Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
A Gas Tax Holiday Won’t Lower Energy Prices. Here’s What Would
As the war with Iran has so glaringly proven, the assertions by Trump and his fellow Republicans about consumer cost benefits of American “energy independence” are a complete sham. But there are real solutions available.
May 21, 2026
With the traditional summer driving season rapidly approaching, gasoline prices in the US—already grossly inflated by President Trump’s ongoing conflict of confusion with Iran—are likely to spike even higher. As of mid-May, the average price at the pump has reached $4.52 a gallon—a 54 percent increase over the pre-war cost. By Memorial Day the average American could be paying more than $5 a gallon—an unthinkable reality just a few months ago.
But how could this be? After all, Trump has claimed for years that a “drill, baby, drill” approach to domestic energy policy, heedlessly advancing the interests of Big Oil, would surely benefit everyday Americans with lower energy costs. What Trump’s foreign and domestic escapades have produced instead was likely his actual intended outcome all along: massive profits for fossil fuel corporations and their executives that helped get him elected. We should be shocked but not surprised that these dirty favors are now being repaid on an unconscionable scale, all at our expense.
As the war with Iran has so glaringly proven, the assertions by Trump and his fellow Republicans about consumer cost benefits of American “energy independence” are a complete sham. There is a remarkably straightforward explanation for this: Domestic oil and gas prices are set by the global marketplace. Our constant interaction with this marketplace, through voluminous oil and gas exporting and importing, makes the US vulnerable to any disruptive occurrence around the world. Increased domestic production does not generally translate to lower energy prices for Americans.
There are key steps that Congress can take right now to substantively reduce fuel costs for US consumers immediately. All they require is the political will to stand up for everyday Americans by standing up to Big Oil.
In recent days Trump has bizarrely claimed that he “doesn’t think at all” about Americans’ financial pain, but has also suggested suspending the federal gasoline tax to provide relief for drivers. This is highly unlikely to make much difference, as little of the modest 18-cent tax would actually be passed down through the supply chain to savings at the pump.
Yet there are key steps that Congress can take right now to substantively reduce fuel costs for US consumers immediately. All they require is the political will to stand up for everyday Americans by standing up to Big Oil.
First, Congress should halt gasoline exports when domestic prices spike. A bill recently introduced by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) would do just this. This simple policy is a no-brainer. A temporary halt on gasoline exports would provide effective insulation from moments of international market turmoil by suddenly bolstering domestic supply and quickly relieving stress on prices at the pump here at home.
The second bill Congress should pass now to help struggling American families is the Windfall Profits Tax—a special levy on the very largest fossil fuel companies. Sponsored by Khanna in the House and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) in the Senate, the bill would impose a supplemental quarterly levy based on the difference between “normal” (but still massive) corporate oil profits made last year versus the absolutely mind-blowing profits raked in since price spikes in 2026. Revenue collected would be returned directly back to taxpayers.
Egregious profiteering aside, Americans shouldn’t be asked to subsidize dirty, climate-killing fossil fuels in the first place.
The Windfall Profits Tax would only fall on the very largest fossil fuel corporations, leaving smaller companies accounting for 70 percent of domestic production untouched. This approach would prevent giants like ExxonMobil and Chevron from further gouging consumers without the very real threat of losing significant market share. With oil priced over $100 a barrel, as it is now, the tax would raise at least $33 billion annually. An average American family would receive at least $325 of this pot. Again, the only loser here: the very biggest of Big Oil.
Egregious profiteering aside, Americans shouldn’t be asked to subsidize dirty, climate-killing fossil fuels in the first place. Congress must act on this absurdity as well, via the End Polluter Welfare Act. First introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in 2012, the bill has been updated over the years to keep up with the ever-expanding amount of taxpayer aid foolishly funneled to one of the richest—and most hazardous—industries in the world. Trump’s disastrous “Big, Beautiful Bill” of 2025 only doubled down on the madness.
Sanders’ bill would eliminate more than $190 billion in tax loopholes and federal subsidies for the fossil fuel industry over the next 10 years. A reinvestment of this huge sum in countless other ways, for countless other purposes, would have a direct and lasting positive impact on Americans’ financial and physical health.
As President Trump continues to address the deepening energy cost crisis in America with an oscillating assortment of meaningless platitudes, false promises, and outright dismissiveness, Congress has an opportunity to step up and advance real, tangible solutions that would help families and small businesses. The legislative tools to address the crisis are sitting on the shelf, waiting for the political will to pull them down, dust them off, and put them to work.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
With the traditional summer driving season rapidly approaching, gasoline prices in the US—already grossly inflated by President Trump’s ongoing conflict of confusion with Iran—are likely to spike even higher. As of mid-May, the average price at the pump has reached $4.52 a gallon—a 54 percent increase over the pre-war cost. By Memorial Day the average American could be paying more than $5 a gallon—an unthinkable reality just a few months ago.
But how could this be? After all, Trump has claimed for years that a “drill, baby, drill” approach to domestic energy policy, heedlessly advancing the interests of Big Oil, would surely benefit everyday Americans with lower energy costs. What Trump’s foreign and domestic escapades have produced instead was likely his actual intended outcome all along: massive profits for fossil fuel corporations and their executives that helped get him elected. We should be shocked but not surprised that these dirty favors are now being repaid on an unconscionable scale, all at our expense.
As the war with Iran has so glaringly proven, the assertions by Trump and his fellow Republicans about consumer cost benefits of American “energy independence” are a complete sham. There is a remarkably straightforward explanation for this: Domestic oil and gas prices are set by the global marketplace. Our constant interaction with this marketplace, through voluminous oil and gas exporting and importing, makes the US vulnerable to any disruptive occurrence around the world. Increased domestic production does not generally translate to lower energy prices for Americans.
There are key steps that Congress can take right now to substantively reduce fuel costs for US consumers immediately. All they require is the political will to stand up for everyday Americans by standing up to Big Oil.
In recent days Trump has bizarrely claimed that he “doesn’t think at all” about Americans’ financial pain, but has also suggested suspending the federal gasoline tax to provide relief for drivers. This is highly unlikely to make much difference, as little of the modest 18-cent tax would actually be passed down through the supply chain to savings at the pump.
Yet there are key steps that Congress can take right now to substantively reduce fuel costs for US consumers immediately. All they require is the political will to stand up for everyday Americans by standing up to Big Oil.
First, Congress should halt gasoline exports when domestic prices spike. A bill recently introduced by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) would do just this. This simple policy is a no-brainer. A temporary halt on gasoline exports would provide effective insulation from moments of international market turmoil by suddenly bolstering domestic supply and quickly relieving stress on prices at the pump here at home.
The second bill Congress should pass now to help struggling American families is the Windfall Profits Tax—a special levy on the very largest fossil fuel companies. Sponsored by Khanna in the House and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) in the Senate, the bill would impose a supplemental quarterly levy based on the difference between “normal” (but still massive) corporate oil profits made last year versus the absolutely mind-blowing profits raked in since price spikes in 2026. Revenue collected would be returned directly back to taxpayers.
Egregious profiteering aside, Americans shouldn’t be asked to subsidize dirty, climate-killing fossil fuels in the first place.
The Windfall Profits Tax would only fall on the very largest fossil fuel corporations, leaving smaller companies accounting for 70 percent of domestic production untouched. This approach would prevent giants like ExxonMobil and Chevron from further gouging consumers without the very real threat of losing significant market share. With oil priced over $100 a barrel, as it is now, the tax would raise at least $33 billion annually. An average American family would receive at least $325 of this pot. Again, the only loser here: the very biggest of Big Oil.
Egregious profiteering aside, Americans shouldn’t be asked to subsidize dirty, climate-killing fossil fuels in the first place. Congress must act on this absurdity as well, via the End Polluter Welfare Act. First introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in 2012, the bill has been updated over the years to keep up with the ever-expanding amount of taxpayer aid foolishly funneled to one of the richest—and most hazardous—industries in the world. Trump’s disastrous “Big, Beautiful Bill” of 2025 only doubled down on the madness.
Sanders’ bill would eliminate more than $190 billion in tax loopholes and federal subsidies for the fossil fuel industry over the next 10 years. A reinvestment of this huge sum in countless other ways, for countless other purposes, would have a direct and lasting positive impact on Americans’ financial and physical health.
As President Trump continues to address the deepening energy cost crisis in America with an oscillating assortment of meaningless platitudes, false promises, and outright dismissiveness, Congress has an opportunity to step up and advance real, tangible solutions that would help families and small businesses. The legislative tools to address the crisis are sitting on the shelf, waiting for the political will to pull them down, dust them off, and put them to work.
With the traditional summer driving season rapidly approaching, gasoline prices in the US—already grossly inflated by President Trump’s ongoing conflict of confusion with Iran—are likely to spike even higher. As of mid-May, the average price at the pump has reached $4.52 a gallon—a 54 percent increase over the pre-war cost. By Memorial Day the average American could be paying more than $5 a gallon—an unthinkable reality just a few months ago.
But how could this be? After all, Trump has claimed for years that a “drill, baby, drill” approach to domestic energy policy, heedlessly advancing the interests of Big Oil, would surely benefit everyday Americans with lower energy costs. What Trump’s foreign and domestic escapades have produced instead was likely his actual intended outcome all along: massive profits for fossil fuel corporations and their executives that helped get him elected. We should be shocked but not surprised that these dirty favors are now being repaid on an unconscionable scale, all at our expense.
As the war with Iran has so glaringly proven, the assertions by Trump and his fellow Republicans about consumer cost benefits of American “energy independence” are a complete sham. There is a remarkably straightforward explanation for this: Domestic oil and gas prices are set by the global marketplace. Our constant interaction with this marketplace, through voluminous oil and gas exporting and importing, makes the US vulnerable to any disruptive occurrence around the world. Increased domestic production does not generally translate to lower energy prices for Americans.
There are key steps that Congress can take right now to substantively reduce fuel costs for US consumers immediately. All they require is the political will to stand up for everyday Americans by standing up to Big Oil.
In recent days Trump has bizarrely claimed that he “doesn’t think at all” about Americans’ financial pain, but has also suggested suspending the federal gasoline tax to provide relief for drivers. This is highly unlikely to make much difference, as little of the modest 18-cent tax would actually be passed down through the supply chain to savings at the pump.
Yet there are key steps that Congress can take right now to substantively reduce fuel costs for US consumers immediately. All they require is the political will to stand up for everyday Americans by standing up to Big Oil.
First, Congress should halt gasoline exports when domestic prices spike. A bill recently introduced by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) would do just this. This simple policy is a no-brainer. A temporary halt on gasoline exports would provide effective insulation from moments of international market turmoil by suddenly bolstering domestic supply and quickly relieving stress on prices at the pump here at home.
The second bill Congress should pass now to help struggling American families is the Windfall Profits Tax—a special levy on the very largest fossil fuel companies. Sponsored by Khanna in the House and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) in the Senate, the bill would impose a supplemental quarterly levy based on the difference between “normal” (but still massive) corporate oil profits made last year versus the absolutely mind-blowing profits raked in since price spikes in 2026. Revenue collected would be returned directly back to taxpayers.
Egregious profiteering aside, Americans shouldn’t be asked to subsidize dirty, climate-killing fossil fuels in the first place.
The Windfall Profits Tax would only fall on the very largest fossil fuel corporations, leaving smaller companies accounting for 70 percent of domestic production untouched. This approach would prevent giants like ExxonMobil and Chevron from further gouging consumers without the very real threat of losing significant market share. With oil priced over $100 a barrel, as it is now, the tax would raise at least $33 billion annually. An average American family would receive at least $325 of this pot. Again, the only loser here: the very biggest of Big Oil.
Egregious profiteering aside, Americans shouldn’t be asked to subsidize dirty, climate-killing fossil fuels in the first place. Congress must act on this absurdity as well, via the End Polluter Welfare Act. First introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in 2012, the bill has been updated over the years to keep up with the ever-expanding amount of taxpayer aid foolishly funneled to one of the richest—and most hazardous—industries in the world. Trump’s disastrous “Big, Beautiful Bill” of 2025 only doubled down on the madness.
Sanders’ bill would eliminate more than $190 billion in tax loopholes and federal subsidies for the fossil fuel industry over the next 10 years. A reinvestment of this huge sum in countless other ways, for countless other purposes, would have a direct and lasting positive impact on Americans’ financial and physical health.
As President Trump continues to address the deepening energy cost crisis in America with an oscillating assortment of meaningless platitudes, false promises, and outright dismissiveness, Congress has an opportunity to step up and advance real, tangible solutions that would help families and small businesses. The legislative tools to address the crisis are sitting on the shelf, waiting for the political will to pull them down, dust them off, and put them to work.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.