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President Biden requesting Congress suspend gas tax
FOX 26 Reporter Matthew Seedorff explains what President Biden is doing and when the gas tax could be suspended.
HOUSTON - As gas prices hover around historically high levels, President Joe Biden is now pushing on congress to pass a federal gas tax holiday.
If passed, the tax holiday would suspend a roughly 18-cent/gallon of gas tax and 24-cent/gallon tax on of diesel. The federal gas tax is a primary source of funding for roads, bridges, and overpasses.
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According to AAA, the average price for a gallon of gas Wednesday in Texas was $4.62 and $5.31 for diesel.
"I remember when it was two-something," said Justin Chavez. "Now, it’s $5.39. Very expensive and I have diesel."
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President Biden said the proposed gas tax holiday would go for three months. Drivers we met at a gas station Wednesday in Houston had mixed feeling on the effectiveness of the proposal.
RELATED: Biden to consider a gasoline tax holiday
"It won’t make much change in my truck," said Keith Nelson. "I guess I’m going to drop down to a Toyota Corolla."
According to Dr. Ramanan Krishnamoorti from the University of Houston, the tax suspension would save most drivers about $15 per month. However, he says the impacts could be felt more broadly and lower costs for other items like food.
"It would save drivers $15 to $20 per month on average," said Dr. Krishnamoorti. "This is not like going back to $2 per gallon of gasoline. [However], it starts to give us some way of saying this is not just a one way street. It is a good thing in the short term. In the long term, what do we do? We’ve got to start adjusting policy, a systematic shift to make sure that we don’t discourage refining, and we don’t discourage oil and gas production."
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President Biden acknowledged that he’d like states to drop their state gas taxes as well. In Texas, drivers pay a state gas tax of about 20 cents per gallon of gas.