Initiative to tax oil producers under review

CALIFORNIA – A new $4 billion tax on oil producers that aims to slash California fuel consumption and bankroll renewable energy and conservation measures could be on the November ballot, according to organizers of a signature-gathering drive set to begin within 10 days.

The initiative, now under review by the state attorney general, is geared to capitalize on public anger at gasoline prices that recently topped $3 a gallon and worries about the environment and global warming.

“There is a tremendous amount of public sentiment toward reducing our dependence on oil,” said Fiona Hutton, a spokeswoman for Red Gate Communications, which has been hired to publicize the effort.

Oil producers — who could get hit in the pocketbook by the new tax — already have formed a coalition to fight the initiative. Al Lundeen, a spokesman for the newly minted Californians Against Higher Taxes, said the measure would make the state’s oil producers less competitive, create an unneeded new bureaucracy and duplicate existing alternative energy efforts.

Texas and Alaska are the only states that pump more oil out of the ground than California. But unlike those states, California has no direct tax on the revenue generated by tapping its finite petroleum resources.

Contra Costa Times