Motor fuel consumers in the state of Georgia can save up to 35 cents per gallon with the governor’s imposition of a tax moratorium that took effect Wednesday.
Gov. Brian P. Kemp declared a state of emergency on Tuesday “due to the 40-year high inflation and negative economic conditions Georgia workers have suffered as a result of Washington, DC’s policies,” as stated in an accompanying press release. the statement As part of the declaration, he has suspended the special fuel tax, which lasts until October 12 with an effective period of 30 days.
While the annual consumer price index (CPI) for all items rose steadily from May 2020 to June 2022, it fell steadily from mid-2022 to June 2023. The percentage change from 12 months was recorded at 9.1 percent in June 2022 and three percent in June. 2023, before the rate rose for the first time in a year to 3.2 percent in July 2023, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The central bank has raised interest rates to try to slow the circulation of money and contain inflation, with the latest adjustment, made last month, to 5.33 percent. President Joe Biden also signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) on August 16, 2022.
Kemp’s office said in a news release about the tax suspension: “Consumers should expect the suspension to begin affecting prices after several days.” For gasoline, the suspension cuts 31.2 cents per gallon, while for diesel consumers it saves 35 cents per gallon.
“When the gas tax was suspended from March to December of last year, 2022, Georgians saved approximately $1.7 billion at the pump,” the office said.
The governor’s executive order for the state of emergency noted, “The costs of everyday essentials such as food, housing and gasoline have risen dramatically.” A typical American household, including in Georgia, has been spending $202 more per month since July 2022 for those goods and services, he said.
He added, “The price of benchmark oil is currently at a 10-month high, and the average price of a gallon of gasoline has risen more than thirty cents in Georgia over the past year.”
Kemp blamed the Biden administration’s restrictions on energy production, saying in a statement that “all Bidenomics has done is take more money out of the pockets of the middle class.”
While the IRA accelerates or incentivizes the development of both fossil and renewable fuels in an attempt to strike a balance between energy security and climate resilience, the Biden administration has been accused of tightening bottlenecks in the production of oil and gas.
The Interior Department said last week it had canceled the remaining leases awarded by the Trump administration to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge because of legal deficiencies in environmental permitting. The decision means that the nine leases issued under the Coastal Plain Lease Program, covering more than 430,000 hectares, have been canceled following a review ordered by the current administration.
The department’s Office of Ocean Energy Management has also removed several blocks in Gulf of Mexico lease sale 261 to “protect sensitive benthic habitat in the Garden Banks” and avoid potentially conflicting with protected species of Rice whales, as well as protecting the sedimentary resources and the reserve. areas for the development of wind energy, according to the text of the sale decision published on August 23. That action is now the subject of a case brought by the industry lobby American Petroleum Institute, Chevron USA Inc. and the state of Louisiana. The suit, filed in a Louisiana district court on Aug. 29, seeks a preliminary injunction to prevent the auction from happening until the restrictive changes are lifted.
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