Adopt tariff on crude oil imports to protect jobs

The continued failure of Congress to implement a tariff on the import of crude oil to protect the production of American crude oil is unconscionable. Our constitution charges Congress with the responsibility for managing foreign trade.

We have lost thousands of high-paying jobs in the oil industry and our steel industry related to cheap foreign oil imports. Have you checked your 401K lately?

As the price of crude oil drops, new production is halted and wells are shut down. This leads to a devaluation of investment portfolios and layoffs in the industries that support the oil industry.

Cheap oil also affects the competitiveness of renewable energy. The crude oil import tariff would only need to be high enough to keep our internal production competitive.

We currently have a tariff on the import of solar panels from China. So we raise the cost for renewable energy and lower the cost of fossil fuels at the same time we have this great commitment to lower our carbon footprint.

I may not be the sharpest tack in the box but this makes no sense. We need to manage the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy so that we don't cause the chaos that we are seeing today.

Protecting our oil production today with an import tariff will help us make that transition. This can't be done overnight; we need sound congressional leadership.

Ray Fusco

Bradenton

This story was originally published January 24, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Adopt tariff on crude oil imports to protect jobs ."