If 4 dollar a gallon gas causes anguish, think about 9 dollars a gallon gas, which Europe is paying. And we will soon.  Ours will just be hidden as much as possible by Congress.

Then apply this to electricity. If 3 dollars a gasoline for gasoline was tolerable,  convert that into a per kilowatt of power for your personal and business utility bills.  Now project your electric and natural gas bills tripling.  After all when gasoline goes from 3 dollars a gallon to 9 dollars a gallon over a shorter timeframe than you might think, why the same thing won’t happen on utilities? Do some research on how much electricity is generated from oil products!

The companies that stay ahead of the curve look strategically at these type scenarios.  If they are preparing for different versions of gasoline and utility price increases, whether in direct tax and cost increases, or new regulatory costs from their version of a carbon tax, should you be doing some contingency planning also?

Or you can wait until an ill conceived tax destroys major sectors of the US economy, and Congress passes the buck on why they could not have seen such impacts.