"Big Oil has been making us pay. It's about time we make them pay."
That's the message that progressive U.S. Rep Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) has for voters in a pair of videos published Tuesday as part of a campaign to push members of Congress to enact windfall profits tax legislation.
"Big Oil has mastered the art of profiteering," Khanna says while standing outside a filling station in one of the videos, which was produced by the Stop the Oil Profiteering (STOP) campaign. "It's less than half a mile from this ExxonMobil station to the U.S. Capitol, but the path from your wallet to the pockets of Big Oil is even more direct."
"Over the last eight months, Big Oil companies have raked in over $100 billion in profits by limiting supply and jacking up prices," he continues. "Big Oil says they're investing all that money in lowering gas prices or funding climate solutions. But that's not true. Big Oil is using their excess profits for billions in stock buybacks designed to reward their CEOs and wealthy shareholders."
As photos of fossil fuel boosters in U.S. Congress including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) are shown in the video, Khanna says that fossil fuel corporations are "also using their profits trying to corrupt our political process."
"For decades, Big Oil has spread lies about the climate crisis," he adds, "and that disinformation campaign continues today, with the help of some of the world's largest PR and ad agencies."
Khanna claims that "progressives in Congress are fighting back," pointing to the recent "passage of the largest climate bill in U.S. history," as well as the introduction of legislation to "end fossil fuel subsidies and put an excess profits tax on the wealthiest oil and gas corporations."
Dozens of congressional Democrats, as well as other Democratic leaders including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, back a windfall profits tax.
In March, Khanna and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) introduced the Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax, which Khanna called an attempt "to curb profiteering by oil companies and provide Americans relief at the gas pump."
Later that month, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) and Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) introduced the Ending Corporate Greed Act, which would subject major corporations to a 95% tax on windfall profits.
Fossil Free Media, a nonprofit media lab supporting the movement to end fossil fuels, claims that more than 8 in 10 U.S. voters want a windfall profits tax.
"The Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax remains the most direct way to hold Big Oil accountable and get money back in the wallets of hard-working Americans," said Jamie Henn, founder and director of Fossil Free Media and spokesperson for the STOP campaign. "It's past time that Congress take action and stop the oil profiteering."
This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Brett Wilkins.