It should be obvious that higher taxes on energy companies will result in higher fuel bills. A return to the all-time-high energy prices of last year would be devastating to families in Maine that are suffering during this recession.

So why does the Obama administration want to single out fuel producers, who provide the engine of the nation’s economic growth, for a punitive tax that would raise the tax rate on domestic energy producers from 32.9 to 35 percent?

Penalizing one of America’s few remaining industries that is fiscally healthy won’t help rebuild the economy, and does nothing to further the admirable goal of eliminating the nation’s addiction to foreign fuel products.

Butch Levebowitz, Lewiston