Perspective: Here's Why the Budget Bill is Bad for Oklahoma

Budget Bill is Bad for Oklahoma By Adam Maxey  I can’t give you the exact reason why so many in the Beltway have a vendetta against our way of life in the heartland, but I can unequivocally say that the freedom and opportunity offered in the Sooner State is worth fighting for. Among many portions of the forthcoming $3.5 trillion federal budget bill, two pieces stand out to me as a slap in the face to Oklahoma.  A carbon border tax is just a ruse, a la regional haze, when the U.S. EPA attempted to impose their top-down energy preferences on Oklahoma for imperceptible visibility improvements. It’s an attempt to tax American companies to such an extent that they make drastic changes to their global supply chains. That the coastal elites have the audacity to believe they can force other countries to comply with their environmental wishes by destroying U.S. business is mind-boggling. Shuffling supply chains to this extent will put U.S. companies at a severe disadvantage against global competition through massive uncertainty and increased costs. This is a recipe for lost jobs and further increases in the price of goods and services we use every day.  Second, the proposed “methane reduction fee” is a direct attack on one of Oklahoma’s top exports: natural gas. The technologies that Oklahomans have pioneered to power the U.S. Shale Revolution and create our own energy independence. According to the U.S. Department of Energy “a world without hydraulic fracturing, in 2025, the U.S. economy would have 7.7 million fewer jobs, $1.1 trillion less in gross domestic product (GDP), and $950 billion less in labor income.” This is a natural gas tax, by terming this a fee, Democrats in Congress are hiding behind semantics in order to rush these bad ideas into law.  This all begs the question, why does the Biden Administration want Americans to lose their jobs or earn less money at the jobs they are lucky enough to keep? Read more » by Jamison Faught - September 24, 2021 at 09:10PM

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