Kansas gubernatorial candidate, who voted to raise state’s gas tax, asks EPA to help lower gas prices

In 2002, then-Kansas State Sen. Derek Schmidt voted for raising fuel taxes in a law that’s still in effect today. Now, the GOP gubernatorial candidate is calling for the EPA to act to reduce gas prices.

Members of both parties opposed the 2002 bill. Republican Tim Huelskamp said the increase would “spell disaster for fuel sales retailers” and predicted millions of dollars in sales would be lost. Democrat and then-Minority Leader Anthony Hensley called the bill “very inequitable.”

“Kansas consumers and small business people will pay a disproportionate amount of taxes and fees compared to the trucking industry,” he said.

Because of the legislation, gasoline and gasohol — gasoline containing ethanol  at a concentration between 5% and 15% — are taxed at $0.24 per gallon in Kansas.

This month, Schmidt, now the state’s attorney general and a Republican candidate for governor, joined Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller in a letter asking the Environmental Protection Agency to offer “relief from the volatile and record high gas prices” by scaling back restrictions of gasoline containing 15% ethanol.

Schmidt and Miller’s letter comes as Americans are experiencing inflation at a 40-year high with “food and gas dominating the price increases Americans have noticed,” the New York Times reported last month.

The EPA bans the sale of fuel containing 15% ethanol from June 1 through Sept. 15 annually over concerns the fuel can contribute to summertime smog.

The attorneys general argue E15 fuel has lower tailpipe emissions and “retail prices significantly below the prices for E10.” Allowing the sale would alleviate fuel price increases due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and reduce American dependence on foreign oil, they say.

Emma O’Brien, spokesperson for the Kansas Democratic Party, called Schmidt’s letter a “political ploy.”

In an emailed statement, she said, “Two of the places Kansans are getting hit the hardest are at the pump and at the store — and Schmidt has a history of raising taxes on both gas and food. When Schmidt had the opportunity to lower costs for Kansans, he instead chose to raise taxes.”