The news tracks a similar move in the U.K. by Chancellor Rishi Sunak on May 26 to impose a 25 percent windfall tax on North Sea energy producers to give a 15 billion pound ($18.9 billion) energy fund subsidy for Britons paying for soaring fuel costs.
The White House has been reviewing proposals from Congress that would hike taxes on energy producers to provide a subsidy or tax rebate to households.
WATCH: RFK JR. WILL REVERSE 80 YEARS OF FARM POLICY
“We are very much open to any proposal that would provide relief to consumers at the pump,” announced Ramamurti.
“There are a variety of interesting proposals and design choices on a windfall profits tax. We’ve looked carefully at each of them and are engaging in conversations with Congress about design.”
JAMES CARVILLE'S CONTROVERSIAL CRITIQUE: IS WOKE CULTURE KILLING DEMOCRATIC SUPPORT?
The proposal, supported by 15 Democrats in the Senate and the House, would impose a new quarterly tax on American oil companies for crude produced domestically or imported from abroad.
The revenue would be siphoned off to consumers below a specific income in a tax rebate that would amount to a few hundred dollars per year, yet the bill does not seem so far to have support in Congress.
INTRUDER SLIPS PAST TSA, BOARDS DELTA PLANE, IN EPIC SECURITY FAILURE
The bill is being sponsored by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who declared on MSNBC in March, “I’m co-sponsoring … a bill on windfall profits tax. We get it, supply and demand, prices go up, but profit margins should not go up, that’s just oil companies gouging.”
WATCH: ATF IS SET TO CRIMINALIZE 10 MILLION AMERICANS
“Big oil companies are making higher profits off Putin’s war,” tweeted Warren.
The “windfall tax on oil would guarantee $200 oil,” replied Dan Rosenblum, a financial analyst at Sharkbiotech.com, in a tweet, saying that a tax on gas producer earnings would cause U.S. fuel prices to soar.
Ramamurti admitted that there would be a potential impact on supply if a windfall tax on producers was imposed, though he said he did not see this as an “insurmountable hurdle.”
OHIO MAN SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR THREATENING ARIZONA GOVERNOR KATIE HOBBS, DETAILS RELEASED
“One thing you want to be aware of when you are looking at those types of proposals is how is it going to affect supply as well,” stated Ramamurti.
“I don’t think that’s an insurmountable hurdle, but it is an important question at a time when there’s clearly a supply issue.”