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The windfall tax is counterproductive for a few reasons:

1.  it distorts the incentive to fix the shortage, prices have to go up much more to make the market resolve supply issues.
2. it doesn't address public anger, reactions are primarily to high prices, regardless of how the profits are handled

We can do better if we throw away the notion that money person A spends trying to buy disaster relief should directly fund disaster relief for person B. It's a disaster, we should not be taxing disaster relief! 

The recent energy crisis in Germany offers a good alternative. When Russian energy imports were disrupted (because of the Ukraine war) the government:
1) Allowed the market to set energy... (read more)