As Congress considers ways to pay for new spending projects and offset pieces of legislation, it is important to remember the public’s concerns about increased taxes on the oil and natural gas industry in America. API has conducted polls to determine this issue’s level of importance for voters.
By a decisive margin, Americans oppose raising taxes on America’s oil and natural gas industry, and most believe it could kill jobs, according to an election-night telephone survey commissioned by API and conducted by Harris Interactive. Sixty percent of the voters surveyed oppose an increase in taxes on the industry (compared with 30 percent in support); 54 percent say an increase could destroy jobs.
Seventy-six percent of voters nationwide believe that raising taxes on the energy industry could cost them more at the gas station. The overwhelming sentiment was echoed across political, gender, age, racial, income, educational and ideological lines according to a “What America is Thinking on Energy Issues” poll in a API March 2012 news release.