European Commission says no to capping gas tax

While John McCain's idea of a gas tax holiday was a hit in the U.S. (well, it was a hit with him and Hillary Clinton, anyway), the European Commission is saying no in all sorts of languages to the possibility of the EU capping the value-added tax on fuel. Automotive News Europe reports that the EC shot down a proposal by French president Nicolas Sarkozy to cap the tax by saying any such move was the wrong response to high oil prices and would require unanimous agreement anyway. Sarkozy didn't specify how high he thought oil prices should go before the tax cap kicked in, but it doesn't look like he even needs to bother. The EC's stand is that, "changing taxation on fuels in order to combat increasing prices would send the wrong message to producing countries. This would show them that they could increase prices, and citizens would have to pay for this. So that's really the wrong message," Commission energy spokesman Ferran Tarradellas told ANE. Funny, that's not the message we heard when McCain and Clinton were all 'bout the gas tax holiday.
[Source: Automotive News Europe]