The following is the press release ATR sent on Obama's proposed taxes on energy production contained in his FY 2010 budget outline:

Obama Budget Taxes Energy Production & Limits New Job Creation 
President’s “change” agenda includes taxing energy and limiting job creation

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On the heels of a national address that centered on creating new jobs and improving the American economy, President Obama released a four trillion dollar budget outline for 2010. Contained in the estimated trillion dollars of net tax increases are provisions that will increase the cost of gasoline, hurt American competitiveness, drive our jobs overseas and will penalize every single American consumer by taxing energy production.

The President’s budget proposal calls for new taxes on oil and gas from our most prosperous region, the Gulf of Mexico, and will virtually repeal every single income tax credit and dedications that allow energy companies to keep the price low at the pump and the jobs high in the factories and processing plants. Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) president Grover Norquist fears this will lead to higher energy prices on American consumers at the worst possible time.

Additionally, the budget calls for a “repeal of oil and gas research and development programs” that create jobs and lead to cleaner, more efficient and cheaper forms of energy. “There is something wrong with a person who doesn’t see the value in research and development just because they want Americans driving to the store on clouds and rainbows – which is essentially what Obama will do,” says Norquist. “If Obama doesn’t want Americans to do silly things like get to and from work and school, then he is doing the right thing, taxing them until they can’t afford to do so. It’s like forcing people to drive on clouds, it simply doesn’t work.”

A recent study from the American Energy Alliance shows that Obama’s willingness to forgo proven methods of energy production that have American jobs attached to them are going to severely hurt the economy rather than help it. According to the analysis offshore energy production and the access to those resources will create $8 trillion in additional economic output (GDP), $2.2 trillion in total tax receipts, 1.2 million new, well-paying jobs annually across the country, and $70 billion in additional wages each year.

Norquist adds that numbers like this are hard to ignore. “Perhaps no one has told the President that stopping research for a program that will lower gas prices, increase our national security, increase out GDP by eight trillion dollars and create a million jobs every year is a criminally stupid idea.”

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