Consumers will likely pay the price for President Obama's proposed $10 tax per-barrel of oil, an administration official and a prominent analyst said Thursday.
Energy companies will simply pass along the cost to consumers, Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.com, which tracks gas prices nationwide, said in an interview with USA TODAY.
Obama is set to propose the tax when he reveals his budget next week, as part of an effort to reduce carbon emissions and generate billions of dollars for mass-transit investments and self-driving vehicles. The new tax would be phased in over five years, and would apply to both domestic and imported oil.
"This is a per-barrel fee on oil paid for by oil companies," White House economic adviser Jeff Zients told reporters Thursday. "So they're the ones paying the fee. We recognize that oil companies will likely pass on some of these costs."
Although the tax is likely to run into political opposition from Republicans, it comes at the most politically expedient time possible: Rock-bottom oil prices could make the inevitable increase in gas prices that would follow a tax increase more palatable.
"Something like this would trickle down and be a $10 per barrel tax on motorists," DeHaan said. "This is not something oil companies are going to absorb."
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