[templar]

Here's how: We should have higher gas taxes and have an oil import fee.

This is the opposite of what the Free Traders advocate for everything else: No tariffs of any kind. Tariffs, they say, will only hurt us.

Anyone know if oil & refined petroleum is covered under GATT or other anti tarrif (anti "protectionist") treaty?

[WOSG]

Tariffs hurt us in many ways, especially if used to "protect" consumers from lower priced goods (= higher standard of living).

But this is about a strategy to replace an OPEC tax with a domestic tax. An analogy would be this - there is something dumber than tariffs and that is to have import 'quotas' that give the profits on the shortened supply product to the foreign importers instead of the US govt.
We should replace all quotas with tariffs, and we should use our 'tariff' power to break the OPEC cartel.