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92 comments on First Principle: End Fossil Fuel Subsidies
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- gasoline tax, not tolls. You want to discourage the least efficient vehicles. If a nickel or dime is not enough to have the effect, then a dollar a gallon...
But we need to encourage domestic production because 100% of the money received is spent domesticly
- proof?
And I think "free markets" are b.s.. Our capitalist system distorts the true costs and subsidises all kind of political goals-from cheap mortgages with no money down that subsidise the suburbs, to the US Treasury bonds that give our tax money to big insurance companies. An import tax rather than a gas tax seems to be more likely to stimulate US production, because domestic oil prices will rise to the same level as the imports. It will also stimulate alternative energy, and remove a huge subsidy for real estate developers. Same way with Toll Roads. And its doable politicially. The right wing controlled media is already starting their tax-and-spend Democrat mantra. How popular are higher federal gas taxes? But punish the Arabs and Hugo Chavez while being fiscaly responsible?-'nuff said
And don't worry, oilmanbob, your job is secure in any case... :-)
But I am concerned about the US dollar collapsing under the huge mountain of debt and the ruinous imported oil bill. So, we need to get money where the money is to be got-and we import about 14 MMBPD. Ten bucks a barrel is $140,00,000 per day. That's real no shit money that could help eliminate the National Debt.
<rant>
When alternative energy kicks in the oil reserves won't be worth as much-less demand means lower prices if we handle the transition properly. I heard that arguement about saving our reserves when Ronald Reagan and King George the First opened the floodgates of cheap foreign imports in the 1980's. If we'd preserved high prices we wouldn't have the crisis in personel and equipment availability that we have now in the oil patch.
For way too long our energy policy has been handled for the profit of the multinational oil companies at the expense of independents and the citizens of the USA. We have the best government that money can buy. Free markets are a myth and a chimera. Revolution Now! Put the jam pot on the bottom shelf where the little guy can get his spoon in! Republican principles are hypocracy and greed!
- Provide for a stable tax base for the state of Alaska
- Reduct our negitive ballance of payments by as much as $60,000,000.00 per DAY
- Provide an employment base for Alaska oil field workers for at least 50 years
- Provide the resource to keep the west coast refineries working
- Insure that the Alaska pipeline is not shut down when north slope (Prudo Bay et al) declines to the 400,000 BOPD rate necessary to operate the pipeline
- Provide the incentive to build the North Slope gas pipeline to maximize the gas potential of the North Slope
I am sure sure that there are additional reasons for more North Slope oil and gas development but these are the first that come to mind.A late comment, to your specific list, which I appreciate. My sincere questions: 1) How long do these positive outcomes last? 2) What happens when ANWAR begins to decline? 3) What to do with this gain - (?)... that is, how to insure the presumed energy gain (total) will be used for off-setting the effects of global peak?
In the Great Depression, entire schools of economics were based on differing levels of caution with regards to taking on national debt. There was a reason for that, even if the current political spectrum is used to the idea. Debt is dangerous, and it takes some very strong elements (being the world's only superpower, capable of unlimited imperialism under the heading of Saving the World from Communism, de facto anchor currency for the world, being the world's best source of cheap oil, having unmatched engineering prowess, the world's best functioning middle class, and in general, being The Shit) to handle it safely. If those elements fall apart, debt spirals out of control and inevitably, the country spirals out of control.
Greenspan spent his career trying to hold the reins, riding the bipolar horse of the market as the country sped up in its path down that spiral. I'm just not sure that we can level out again, without drastically reshaping the political system and the economy.
Conservation is our first step, and quite possibly the most valuable one. Higher prices and stopping subsidies for wasteful behaviour are an important first step. People are empowered when they save money, and saving energy will save money. If we use fewer fossil fuels we will help global warming.And to quote Ben Franklin, "Waste Not, Want Not"
All I'm saying is that an oil import tax meets more of our countries economic needs than a "windfall profits tax". And, I think a cute label for it like an Anti-terrorism initive would quite probably sell the deal, while a gasoline tax is political suicide and won't pass, and probably would get vetoed if the tax did pass. Maybe call an import tarrif an Independence Initative. Stop funding terrorists with your SUV.
This will be an uphill battle. The Automobile industry and the oil companies control the media-look at the advertisements on CNN and Fox news channels. And, New York writers I hope to inspire you, have the actresses om the soaps say that guys drive gas guzzlers to make up for their small penis and stupidity.
Do you have any specifics for "reshaping"?