Apr 24, 2006 2:32 pm US/Eastern
Gov. Rendell Wants To Curb Gas Price Profiteering
HARRISBURG (AP) ―
Gov. Ed Rendell on Monday urged federal policy-makers to impose a windfall profits tax on oil companies to curb "profiteering" that he said is causing skyrocketing gasoline prices.
The Democrat said U.S. oil refiners' profits mushroomed from less than 23 cents a gallon in 1999 to 99 cents a gallon in 2005, driving up retail prices that have doubled to nearly $3 a gallon in just three years in Pennsylvania.
"There is no excuse for this, absolutely no excuse," he said at a news conference next to the pumps at a local gas station. "It's embarrassing."
Pennsylvania's senior U.S. senator, Republican Arlen Specter, said Sunday that the government should consider taxing oil companies if they make excessive profits amid rising gasoline prices.
Specter said such a tax, coupled with measures to stem the concentration of market power among a few oil companies, could eventually provide relief to consumers.
Rendell, who faces a re-election challenge this year from former football star Lynn Swann, a Republican, said revenue from any windfall-profits tax should be returned to consumers.
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