John Catsimatidis, a longtime Trump ally and CEO of United Refining Company, said in March that Americans should just ‘suffer for one month’ with high fuel prices so that the United States can ‘take out the terrorists’. (Photo by John Nacion/Variety via Getty Images)As the euphoria from Tuesday’s midterm elections begins to fade, a debate is brewing over how Democrats should use their newfound power come January.Many people are saying the incoming Congress should focus on pursuing retribution against Trump and his allies for two years of corruption and corporate handouts. Others are saying Democrats’ first priority should be delivering meaningful economic relief to struggling Americans.I am a Libra, so I see both sides. And I think everyone should get what they want.So here’s a way the 120th Congress can do both: impose consequences on some of the biggest grifters of the Trump era, while putting money directly into working people’s pockets.As soon as they come into power, Democrats should pursue an emergency tax on Big Oil’s unearned, disgusting wartime windfall profits.You don’t ever need to pay for HEATED—it’s free. But if you have the means, paid subscriptions keep us alive and independent.Big Oil is cashing in on the war Americans are paying forJust days before the midterms, the New York Times published an analysis showing that the U.S. oil and gas industry raked in an eye-popping $130 billion in profit during just six months of the Iran War. That’s nearly three times as much as those same companies earned over the same period last year.Source: New York TimesThose massive profits are unearned. Oil companies didn’t sell more product, or come up with some brilliant innovation. What that happened is that Donald Trump’s war in Iran sent oil prices soaring, and oil companies collected the extra money Americans were forced to spend.How much extra money were Americans forced to spend? According to Brown University researchers, Americans have spent an extra $152 billion on gasoline and diesel since the Iran War began—an average of $1,164 per household.You might hope that at least some of the oil industry’s extraordinary haul would go toward helping the people paying for it. There’s certainly enough money to make a difference: $130 billion is more than the annual cost of providing all Americans with paid family leave, universal pre-K and child care, and expanded health insurance subsidies—combined. It’s more than the cost of replacing every lead drinking water pipe in America. And it’s more than twice the estimated first-year cost of a plan to end homelessness nationwide.But oil executives have other plans. According to the Times, the oil industry’s windfall profits will go toward lining the pockets of oil company shareholders; paying down debt; and in at least one oil executive’s case, buying a brand new corporate plane. ‘I’m 78 years old,’ said John Catsimatidis, the billionaire CEO of United Refining and a close friend and political ally of Trump. ‘If I don’t buy a new airplane now, when am I going to buy it? When I’m dead?’ Mind you, this is the same guy who, back in March, said Americans should just ‘suffer for one month’ with high fuel prices so that the United States can ‘take out the terrorists’.Well, it’s been eight months—and gas prices have increased.So maybe it’s time for someone else to suffer. Subscribe nowWe’ve seen windfall taxes on Big Oil beforeTaxing the oil industry’s wartime windfalls is hardly a radical proposal. After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, governments across Europe did exactly that.According to the European Commission, European Union countries collected more than €26 billion from emergency taxes on fossil fuel companies’ windfall earnings in 2022 and 2023. Much of that money went toward helping households and businesses struggling with high energy prices.The EU-wide measure expired at the end of 2023, but some countries have kept their own windfall taxes in place. The United Kingdom, for example, imposed its own windfall tax on oil and gas companies in 2022—and they did it under a Conservative government. That tax is still in effect, and raised £2.6 billion in the last fiscal year alone. In fact, Britain has since extended the tax through 2030, with plans to replace it with a permanent tax on oil and gas companies whenever prices get unusually high.And the precedent for a windfall tax on oil companies doesn’t just exist overseas. We actually used to have one here in the United States. In 1980, after oil prices doubled amid the Iranian Revolution, President Jimmy Carter signed a law to claw back some of the billions in windfall earnings oil companies stood to collect. Carter had intended to use the money to help Americans pay their energy bills, expand public transit, and invest in alternative energy. Instead, the revenue went into the federal government’s general fund, helping reduce the deficit.But altogether, the U.S. oil windfall tax raised roughly $80 billion in gross revenue before Ronald Reagan repealed it in 1988. It wasn’t a perfect policy, as the Congressional Research Service documented in a 2006 review—in part it taxed oil based on its price, rather than companies’ actual profits. That made it a less precise way to target the extra money oil companies were actually pocketing. But its history demonstrates that it is indeed possible for Congress to claw back billions in oil industry windfalls if it chooses to. Subscribe nowThe windfall tax proposal currently in CongressA proposal to tax Big Oil’s wartime earnings and send the money back to struggling Americans already exists in Congress today.Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) have proposed the Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act. It takes a similar approach to Carter’s policy, imposing a price-based tax on barrels of oil produced or imported by large companies. But then, it mandates returning the revenue to Americans through quarterly rebate checks.’Big Oil is raking in massive profits off of sky-high prices and bragging about their greed to shareholders,’ Whitehouse told HEATED. ‘My windfall profits clawback would make Big Oil give back some of the excess billions they gouged from American consumers as prices soared from Trump’s war in the Middle East.’Whitehouse’s office told HEATED that, assuming oil averages $100 a barrel this year, the proposal would raise approximately $33 billion. That would translate into annual payments of about $216 for eligible single filers and $324 for couples filing jointly, with payments phasing out above incomes of $75,000 and $150,000, respectively.That wouldn’t come close to covering the extra $1,164 the average household has spent on gasoline and diesel since the war began. But it would put some money back in Americans’ pockets—and make ghouls like Catsimatidis help foot the bill.Subscribe nowNow is the time to make Big Oil payTo be clear, I’m not saying the Whitehouse-Khanna bill is the best possible policy. Democrats have the coming months to work out the strongest version of a windfall tax.But this is the correct time For Democrats to commit to making Big Oil pay. The last two years of Trump 2.0 have seen handout after handout given to this industry: everything from lower fees for extracting publicly owned oil and gas, a decade-long delay in fees on methane pollution, and expanded access to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.The public is already paying for these favors in lost revenue, more pollution, and a more dangerous climate. Oil executives are getting richer while the only livable planet we have gets hotter. There should be consequences for that.What’s more, it’s possible Trump could go along with the plan. Back in August, he seemed to recognize that Americans were getting a raw deal. ‘They made too much money, too much money,’ he said of oil companies’ quarterly profits. ‘They ought to give some of that back to the public.’Of course, Trump has since changed his tune. ‘We’re making a freaking fortune,’ he bragged last month. By ‘we,’ he certainly includes himself: An August analysis by Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee estimated that Trump’s disclosed oil and gas stocks have increased in value by as much as $15.5 million.But Big Oil is bracing for another Trump flip-flop. On Wednesday, Bloomberg News reported that oil executives and their Washington lobbyists are worried that Trump might make a deal with Democrats to impose a tax on their enormous wartime profits.In other words, the oil industry is taking the possibility of a windfall tax seriously. That means Democrats should, too. They should draft the strongest possible version of the policy, put it on Trump’s desk, and dare him to veto it. Then let him explain why a billionaire needs another plane more than Americans need their money back.ShareIf you read this piece and thought, ‘Dang I’m glad someone wrote this,’ please consider becoming a paid subscriber to HEATED! Paid subscribers are the only way I get paid for my work—I don’t take ads, grants, or accept corporate sponsorship. Reader subscribers are also how I can keep these pieces free for everyone to read—no paywalls, baby!! So if you appreciate this work and can afford to chip in, I’d be forever grateful. Thank you!! Subscribe nowMargo is experiencing a windfall of sunny naps.