A column by UW-Madison faculty members Greg Nemet and David Weimer says that a policy window on energy has opened for President-elect Barack Obama that could fund his energy program with minimum fuss: the re-emergence of the oil import fee.
Since the 1970s, energy analysts have advocated an oil import fee to help reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil. Advocates have argued that there are external costs associated with oil imports from the unstable Middle East that should be internalized in the price of oil.