2008 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said yesterday that she backs a plan to hike gasoline taxes through the roof.
Speaking to a group of alternative energy investors in Washington, D.C., Clinton proposed to sock oil companies with $20 billion in new fees that would be used to fund research on clean energy - driving up costs for oil producers that they would inevitably pass along to consumers.
The top Democrat said her goal is to get "oil companies that have experienced these amazing profits either to reinvest them in our energy future to reduce our dependence on oil or to contribute to a strategic energy fund that will provide incentives for companies and consumers who want to be part of an energy solution."
Mrs. Clinton's whopping tax hike proposal comes just as prices at the pump are beginning to decline from records highs in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which caused a bump in energy inflation that experts warned could tip the economy into recession.
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Mrs. Clinton insisted that her $20 billion fee plan was "not about new energy taxes on consumers" - but she declined to say how oil companies would absorb the additional costs without charging consumers.