A Reasonable Profits Board

[Trebor]

Saw this mentioned by Timothy Sandefur ("Freespace") as "Now, this really is straight out of Atlas Shrugged":

"Dems propose 'Reasonable Profits Board' to regulate oil company profits" By Pete Kasperowicz - 01/19/12 10:20 AM ET

The Democrats, worried about higher gas prices, want to set up a board that would apply a "windfall profit tax" as high as 100 percent on the sale of oil and gas, according to their legislation. The bill provides no specific guidance for how the board would determine what constitutes a reasonable profit.

The Gas Price Spike Act, H.R. 3784, would apply a windfall tax on the sale of oil and gas that ranges from 50 percent to 100 percent on all surplus earnings exceeding "a reasonable profit." It would set up a Reasonable Profits Board made up of three presidential nominees that will serve three-year terms. Unlike other bills setting up advisory boards, the Reasonable Profits Board would not be made up of any nominees from Congress.

The bill would also seem to exclude industry representatives from the board, as it says members "shall have no financial interests in any of the businesses for which reasonable profits are determined by the Board."

But of course the Democrats are worried about higher gas prices!

Edited January 19, 2012 by Trebor

[Hairnet]

Like they are going to be able to keep industry influences out of that. At best what will happen is it actually does work as planned and all the oil companies sink these people's campaigns and fund the other guy next election. What will most likely happen is that certain oil companies will actually benefit from this (because an OIl Company CEO is vastly more intelligent, resourceful, and cunning than a "Occupy Wall Street" looser).