Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) took to X on Sunday to accuse major oil companies of exploiting the ongoing war with Iran for profit, arguing that American drivers are paying sharply higher prices at the pump while energy companies post record earnings. The post amplifies legislation Schiff introduced days earlier and extends a monthslong campaign by the senator to tie the economic fallout of President Donald Trump’s war in Iran directly to the profits of the oil industry.
The Post
Posting on X at 5:33 p.m. on September 27, 2026, Schiff wrote:
“You’re paying 50% more for gas since the start of the Iran War.
But Big Oil is turning those price spikes into profits while you’re left wondering if you’ll be able to fill your tank.
I’m introducing legislation to ensure that Big Oil pays its fair share and doesn’t rake in massive profits while American families suffer with high costs.”
Legislation Introduced Days Earlier
The post follows Schiff’s formal introduction, on Thursday, September 24, of the Oil Company Windfall Profits Tax Act, which would impose a permanent excess-profits tax on large oil companies. Revenue raised under the bill would be directed to the Highway Trust Fund, the Mass Transit Account, and the Leaking Underground Storage Tank Trust Fund, mirroring the existing allocation ratios of the federal gas tax.
In announcing the bill, Schiff said plainly, “Big Oil must pay their fair share.” His office noted the legislation comes as the war in Iran has stretched into its seventh month and as gasoline and utility costs have climbed to levels described as nearly double what they were before the war began, with California gas prices exceeding six dollars a gallon in some areas.
Six Months of Rising Costs
The economic backdrop to Schiff’s push traces back to February 28, 2026, when joint U.S.-Israeli airstrikes targeting Iranian leadership and military infrastructure opened the current conflict, including a strike that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which more than a fifth of global oil trade normally passes, triggered a worldwide fuel crisis and sharp swings in crude prices throughout the year.
Brent crude surged to roughly $118 a barrel by late March before falling back to around $70 by July 1, then climbing again above $100 in late July and fluctuating between $87 and $97 through August. Prices spiked again to roughly $109 in early September after renewed attacks on shipping and energy infrastructure reversed earlier declines.
Big Oil’s Profits Under Scrutiny
Schiff has repeatedly cited the same profit figures in building his case against the industry. At a press conference in late June outside a Los Angeles-area gas station charging as much as $8.59 a gallon for regular fuel, Schiff said the six largest oil companies had made “in excess of $90 billion” in profits over the preceding year, or “about $3,000 a second.” He argued that part of the blame for high prices rested with Iran’s disruption of shipping through Hormuz, but added that “there are other reasons why we’re facing such high gas prices” tied to price gouging by the companies themselves.
By September, Schiff’s office was citing an analysis projecting that the world’s largest oil and gas companies would take in roughly $96 billion in profits for 2026, about $13.5 billion more than the prior year, even as crude prices had fallen well off their wartime peak.
A Monthslong Campaign Against Price Gouging
Sunday’s post is the latest step in an effort Schiff began building publicly over the summer. In July, he called on the Department of Justice to open a federal investigation into potential price gouging by oil companies and to report its findings to Congress, while separately announcing his intent to pursue a windfall profits tax. That effort culminated in the bill formally introduced in September.
Schiff has also raised the issue on national television, telling NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Americans were facing gas prices at a four-year high and proposing that the federal gas tax be suspended and replaced with a windfall profits tax on oil companies benefiting from the war.
Schiff’s Parallel Fight to End the War
Schiff’s criticism of Big Oil has run alongside a separate, months-long effort in the Senate to end the Iran war itself through War Powers Resolution votes. He and Senate colleagues, including Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Tim Kaine, first pushed for a vote on a bipartisan resolution introduced on January 29, arguing the war lacked congressional authorization and did not prevent the U.S. from defending itself or Israel from Iranian attack.
At the 60-day mark of the war in late April, Schiff and Schumer forced another vote, which Senate Republicans blocked. Schiff argued at the time that “after two months of war, thirteen service members’ lives lost, and billions of dollars squandered, it is time we recognized that the price we have paid is already too high.”
On June 23, the Senate voted 50-48 to approve a nonbinding, House-passed resolution directing Trump to withdraw U.S. troops from hostilities with Iran, with four Republicans joining Democrats in support. After hostilities intensified again in July following renewed strikes, Schiff announced he would force another vote, arguing the administration could not simply reset the 60-day War Powers clock without congressional input.
The War’s Uncertain Endpoint
The Senate has now voted more than a dozen times on various War Powers Resolutions tied to the conflict, with mixed results. In one instance, the Senate voted to pass a resolution to remove U.S. forces from hostilities with Iran altogether, with Schiff saying the administration had “capitulated with a complete giveaway to Iran that leaves our national security far worse than when the war began,” and noting that 13 servicemembers had been killed over the course of the war.
Despite that vote, tensions with Iran have continued to flare intermittently, and as recently as this month Schiff took to the Senate floor again to urge a fresh War Powers Resolution as the USS Abraham Lincoln returned home after more than 300 days of deployment; that measure failed by a single vote, 49 to 50.
Where Things Stand
Taken together, Schiff’s Sunday post ties the two threads of his messaging on the war together: the human and financial cost of a conflict he has repeatedly called unauthorized, and the economic burden he says has fallen disproportionately on American consumers while oil companies post near-record earnings. His office has not announced a scheduled vote on the Oil Company Windfall Profits Tax Act as of Sunday’s post.
The senator’s campaign against both the war and its economic side effects is expected to continue as gas prices remain elevated compared to pre-war levels and as the conflict’s status remains unresolved heading into the fall.