In case you missed it, Senator Maggie Hassan this morning joined Chris Ryan on WGIR’s NH Today to discuss her push to suspend the gas tax and bring Granite Staters relief at the pump. During the interview, Senator Hassan laid out how she is standing up to Big Oil for keeping gas prices high while reaping record profits — and called out her Republican opponents for “making apologies and excuses for Big Oil rather than standing up for Granite Staters.” Senator Hassan has been relentless in pushing to lower energy costs for Granite Staters — leading efforts to suspend the gas tax, successfully calling on the Biden Administration to twice release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and pushing to hold Big Oil companies accountable for padding their pockets at the expense of Americans.
Here are some highlights of Senator Hassan’s interview this morning:
On Suspending the Gas Tax and Lowering Energy Prices for Granite Staters: “This is really hurting people in the pocketbook. And one of the ways we can help people make ends meet right now is suspending the federal gas tax for the rest of the year. […] This is a straightforward concrete thing that we can do that can save people money week to week. […] I pushed the administration to release more oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, they’ve done that. They could do more and I’ll continue to push there. I’m standing up to Big Oil and believe that we could get them to increase supply and lower the prices at least a bit if we had a windfall profits tax on them.”
On Standing Up to Big Oil: “When people make apologies for Big Oil […] people need to be aware that that is an excuse that Big Oil is using to drive prices up and take advantage of these two crises of the pandemic on the one hand and the war on the other. They have thousands of permits that would allow them to already drill more oil and produce more oil. They have the right to do that right now. They are declining to do that because they would rather drive prices up. So the solution here is to stand up to Big Oil, is to tax their windfall profits, and incentivize them to begin to produce more oil that they already have the right and the capacity to do.”
On the Republican Senate Candidates Defending Big Oil: “But people need to really, you know, keep your ears open. When folks like my opponents keep defending Big Oil, which is taking advantage of these crises and driving prices up at the pump, you need to remember that they are really making apologies and excuses for Big Oil rather than standing up for Granite Staters.”