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Virginia Senators weigh in on proposed federal gas tax holiday

Concerns are raised as President Joe Biden pushes for the holiday

LYNCHBURG, Va. – Virginia State Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner expressed some concerns as President Joe Biden continues to push his proposal for a federal gas tax holiday.

“I’m going to vote for it. It’s temporary. I can support it,” said Kaine.

But Kaine said he’d prefer a different solution.

“I would rather vote to have an access profits tax on oil companies who are raking in record profits right now, to have that be temporary; and to take all the money from that tax and rebate it back to consumers who are dealing with these high gas prices,” said Kaine.

Warner acknowledged that gas prices are too high but first wants to see more data on how the plan would work.

“I’ve not rejected it outright, but the data I want to see is what kind of guarantees would this actually pass on in direct benefit to the consumers; and how would we ensure that middlemen or oil companies wouldn’t simply say, ‘alright, let’s just pocket these 18 cents,” said Warner.

Warner is also concerned that Virginia could lose hundreds of millions of dollars in additional revenue and wants to know what the plan will be if prices come down.

“If we do this for three months, and then suddenly in September, you’re going to put it back on. It’s easy to take [the tax] off, but are you going to put it back on?” Warner questioned.


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About the Author
Tim Harfmann headshot

Tim Harfmann joined the 10 News team in September 2020 and works at the station's Lynchburg bureau.

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