In Apparent Last-Minute U-Turn, Kerry Rejects Reports of Fuel Tax in Soon-to-be-Released Climate Bill. By James Murray, BusinessGreen, April 21, 2010. "Senator John Kerry said yesterday that the compromise US climate bill that is due to be unveiled next week will not include controversial proposals for some form of levy on road fuel. Business leaders and environmental groups that had received briefings from the bi-partisan group of senators working on the bill had said that earlier drafts included plans for a 'fee' on oil products. They said that the 'fee' would be 'linked' to the price of carbon established through the emissions trading scheme that also features in the bill. It had been expected that the 'fee,' which was designed to help curb emissions from the transport sector, would result in higher prices at the pump, effectively acting as a fuel tax.
"However, any legislation that threatens to drive up fuel prices, already expected to hit record levels this summer, is bound to prove highly unpopular and Kerry yesterday signalled that a levy on fuel would not feature in the bill. 'There is not even a linked fee,' he told reporters. 'There's not a tax, there's nothing similar.' Kerry refused to provide further details about the apparent last-minute U-turn, beyond insisting that there was nothing in the draft bill similar to what had been reported previously. His comments come just days after a spokesman for Republican senator Lindsey Graham, who has been working on the draft bill alongside Kerry and independent Senator Joe Lieberman, also signalled that the bill did not include a 'gas tax.'"
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