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38 comments on Senate blocks debate of clean energy tax credits

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Robert Rapier on June 17, 2008 - 6:46pm Permalink | Subthread | Comments top

This is the sort of thing that reinforces my belief that U.S. energy policy is completely dysfunctional.

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Oilrig medic on June 17, 2008 - 6:49pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

RR hey hows life? Hope its good. Anyway why don't we have a commission of economists, engineers and scientists that run energy policy the way the Fed is run by accountants. Changing energy policy whimsically every 4 years is why companies don't invest long term. Megaprojects would get funding privately if the tax/political environment could be anticipated long term.
matt

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Robert Rapier on June 17, 2008 - 7:14pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

RR hey hows life? Hope its good.

Hey, I was about to ask the same of you. Still in Brazil?

I have been in the Netherlands almost full-time this year, but right now I am in Montana preparing for a move to Dallas. We have a 20-hour drive in front of us on Thursday and Friday. For the next year, I am probably looking at a rotation of 2 weeks over there and two weeks at home.

You are spot on about changing energy policy every few years. Companies can't make long-term investments in that climate. It has been that way for oil companies for many years. If you have to make a multi-billion dollar investment, and you have an ever-shifting energy policy hanging over your head, what do you do? Proceed very cautiously. Then, when you don't invest as aggressively as the government felt you should, they demonize you.

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Oilrig medic on June 17, 2008 - 7:56pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I moved back from BR....Stateside going to med school.

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Robert Marston on June 17, 2008 - 10:12pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Cheers Robert! We can thank Republicans for this one. That and a lot of propaganda about the US being able to drill its way to energy independence.

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WNC Observer on June 18, 2008 - 8:37am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

This is the sort of thing that reinforces my belief that U.S. energy policy is completely dysfunctional.

That is because the US political system is completely dysfunctional. It isn't just energy, it is just about everything touched by the FedGov.

Dysfunctional political systems don't just go on and on forever. The unfixed problems accumulate, and sooner or later a tipping point is hit. The dysfunctional system is then swept into the dustbin of history, and the society moves on with a different system.

People just assume that the existing U.S. political system will continue on forever. They fail to realize that no political system ever does, and the U.S. political system is already one of the oldest on earth. We might very well have a political "Black Swan" in our future, maybe even our near future.

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Iconoclast421 on June 18, 2008 - 5:32pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

There wouldnt be anything wrong with the US political system if it functioned as envisioned by the founding fathers.

What cannot go on forever is a debt and inflation based system where the military contractors own the media that tells the citizenry that they need to go further and further and further into debt to pay for all these bloated military budgets so that the dumbed down citizenry can feel protected from mythical boogymen in caves. This system is more absurd than having an elephant packed into the corner of everyone's living room. Yet because people trust without discernment, they allowed themselves to be trained to accept this. The lies, the propaganda, the intellectual warfare and subjugation that is required to keep this system running is exacting a huge toll on this country and this planet.

It takes ingenuity and freedom of thought to solve the problems facing the world today. But it is not possible to function in such an absurd system if you possess these traits. That is why humanity will eventually extinct itself if it does not dismantle this "military industrial complex". This system is literally stampeding humanity off the edge of a cliff. Like the buffalo hunters did. And despite the amazing wealth of information available on sites like these, the system is more powerful now than at any point in history. There is no point in talking about peak oil to the average american, because they just dont care about anything except what makes them "feel good". If you cant figure out a way to deprogram them from a lifetime of propaganda, then there is no point in talking to them at all. They cannot be helped, they cannot be saved until you undo the damage caused by years of military industrial complex mind control.

This system is not something I would call "American" in any way.

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eric blair on June 19, 2008 - 3:30am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

There wouldnt be anything wrong with the US political system if it functioned as envisioned by the founding fathers.

Where male land owners had the right to vote?

Or perhaps the part before the whiskey rebellion?

It takes ingenuity and freedom of thought to solve the problems facing the world today.

And a willingness to accept that, while one may be unique like a snowflake, you are but an cog in the machine - a cog that is quite replaceable.

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38 comments on Senate blocks debate of clean energy tax credits

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