With gasoline prices once again hitting record highs it may seem like an odd time to argue for a hike in gasoline taxes, but argue the P-I editorial board does:
We are as upset as anybody at oil companies. And roller-coaster prices are painful for everyone’s budget. But a key ingredient in any reasonably speedy energy-policy fix must be higher gas prices.
That’s particularly true if innovation and technology are to be utilized effectively. A federal gas tax increase of 50 cents or more would assure that there will be a market for new technologies.
[…] Congress should raise gasoline taxes or set minimum oil prices. Democrats might regard that as political poison to their new majority. But addiction to oil is poisoning the environment, weakening public confidence in the economy and undercutting U.S. ability to make wise, independent foreign policy decisions.
No doubt the tripling of gas prices over the past six years has been a hardship for working and middle class Americans, costing many families thousands of dollars a year. But to do nothing is to tacitly approve a course of action that would surely lead American consumers from bad to worse. Between global warming, Middle East security concerns and approaching peak oil, the price of energy is going nowhere but up.
So I’d like to one up the P-I editorial board and suggest that we cannot wait for Congress and the President to act unpopularly, if responsibly. We need to dramatically increase gasoline taxes in Washington state, while amending our state Constitution to permit gasoline tax revenues to be spent on mass transit and alternative energy research and development.
A massive investment in rail and other mass transit infrastructure is the fastest way to get Washington drivers out of their cars and away from the pumps. Meanwhile, given the focus and the money, there is an opportunity for the region to take the lead in the development and manufacturing of the alternative energy technologies of the future, assuring another generation of high tech jobs in the region to accompany those in the aerospace and software industries.
Gasoline prices routinely jump a dollar a gallon with barely a blip in consumption. Wouldn’t you rather the next hike in fuel prices represent an investment in our region’s future, rather than a 9-figure bonus for top Exxon executives?
Interesting take Voice Of Chalk Scratching. Why now ask Maria Moonbat! or the smartest woman in the world why oil prices escalated so fast on their watch?
http://www.eia.doe.gov/basics/energybasics101.html
my name
is roger Rabbit
and I post is 10 words or less
because I’m a pathetic rabbit
with no life and nothing contructive or interesting to say.
Yes, why not tax oil like they do in Europe?
look at me, I’ve posted 90% of the posts
if you don’t like it
Too bad, eat s**t and die (Ann Coulter humor)
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/in.....html#Motor
On average Europeans pay $4 more a gallon because of taxes. Why not emulate Europe? John Effin Kerry thinks we should!
Puddybud,
As a friend, do yourself a favor, don’t degrade your arugments by trying to blame Maria Cantwell and the Democrats for prices that have risen so dramatically this year since they’ve retained control of congress.
The elements of why oil prices have risen are a direct result of failed Republican leadership at governance. The instability in the middle east puts about 30% increase in the cost of crude oil.
Why did the cost of gas falldramtically rigth before the elections to $2.20 per gallon? Then increase sharply right after the election?
Has our capacity to produce gasoline lessened by 50% to refelct a 50% increase in gasoline costs? ($2.20 x 1.5 = $3.30)
As much as you would like to pretend the nations troubles right now are a result of Democratic decisions, they are not. You know the Republicans have been running the show in congress for nearly 12 years, half of those with Bush at the helm.
What you are witnessing is the failed model of government that is the conservative philosophy. Liberalism is THE founding principle of our nation. Reading and learning about our Founding Fathers and the documents they produced that governs the greatest nation ever created in human history was not based on the ideals of conservatism and relgious ideology. Quite the opposite, in fact.
While we are at it, can we drop the price of coffee? My average cup of Starbucks is well over the price of gas.
Goldy, give up on Mass Transit. The Sounder has to be subsidized, the cattle movers (buses) are rarely filled anywhere near capacity. The monorail has been a disaster. The Light Rail project might work, but doubtful. The Dems will find a way to screw that one up too. I am all for having a Trimet system like Portland. I find using the light rail down there easy and a good investment. Economically, the areas surrounding the Trimet route has boomed, and even areas not directly on the Light Rail have seen an increase in growth. The problem with doing it in Seattle, is you Dems would like to go from 1 extreme to another. Rather than actually looking for an alternate plan, where both traffic and mass transit could work, you would rather go all 1 way. That is why the Portland System works. They didn’t shut down any major sections of Freeway, in order to facilitate the Light Rail. They also didn’t let special interest get involved in the construction and layout. Seattle is all screwed up, because nobody but 1 side has any power. That side is all to the left. If you libs are so great and smart, then why the hell can’t you get anything done?
Oh wait, I remember, you promise to hire more cops, then can’t get the funding. You cut staffing levels of the Fire Department. You pay for Space Age Toilets in Downtown that have become havens for Crack dealers and Hookers. You spend millions of dollars on a monorail project, and have nothing to show for it. You spent a million dollars, in Taxpayers money, for a vote that both sides admitted would accomplish nothing, regardless of the outcome. Again, why can’t you hire more cops and why do you keep reducing Fire Department staffing?
Hey Libs, Great Poll numbers by the way.
http://www.galluppoll.com/content/?ci=27589
Never was a tax that a Liberal didn’t like.
“No doubt the tripling of gas prices over the past six years has been a hardship for working and middle class Americans, costing many families thousands of dollars a year. But to do nothing is to tacitly approve a course of action that would surely lead American consumers from bad to worse.”
Here’s a little gem for ya.
Ease the EPA standards and red tape to build new refineries.. That’s the road to lower pump prices and relief for (democrat code words)”working and middle class families”.
” A massive investment in rail and other mass transit infrastructure is the fastest way to get Washington drivers out of their cars and away from the pumps”
This is the failed policy that our state has adopted for 20 years and it has given us some of the worst traffic and transportation in the nation…all this WITH nearly the highest gas tax (usage tax) in the nation..
I have the thought that this and the previous thread are related. The idea of religion and a belief in heaven seem to me involve defeating human desire for survival, and replacing it with a belief that death does not occur. This is what get the tribes warriors out attacking those of the other tribe. The warrior battles to save the tribe, and thinks it’s OK, because he’s going to a better place, anyway.
We’ve understood the extent of territory available for conquest and usurpation for quite awhile, now. Since gaining this knowledge, industrialization has let loose a ticking time bomb of greebhouse gases that now threaten everybody on the planet,
Survival doesn’t depend of slaughtering all the members of a neighbor. It requires cooperation to perserve earth.
Beyond that, as Stephen Hawking said, we have to figure out how to escape it.
“I am not afraid of death but I’m in no hurry to die. My next goal is to go into space,” said Hawking
“As a friend, do yourself a favor, don’t degrade your arugments by trying to blame Maria Cantwell and the Democrats for prices that have risen so dramatically this year since they’ve retained control of congress.”
Ditto 9/11 and President Bush.
Thanks GBS
GBS: Did you breathe too many exhaust fumes from your new Porsche engine?
I already proved even to PelletHead the cost of oil went up due to increase of three countries demand. Sure the price of a barrel of oil went up, but don’t you think it’s conspicuous that the price of oil is about the same from a year ago and the gas prices are much higher? What changed? Ummmm… Moonbat!s leading congress. Where is the hue and cry over the high gas prices your side started in their lefty mantras of last year. I haven’t seen anything lately.
I posted the web sites for people to review this. If you choose NOT to review it then continue to drink the Voice of Chalk Scratching kool-aid.
“No doubt the tripling of gas prices over the past six years has been a hardship for working and middle class Americans, costing many families thousands of dollars a year”
Since when have you cared a jot about whether or not a tax is regressive or progressive? You are pimping the sales tax increases ST and RTID want – those are a terrible deal for the retirees, unemployed, self-employed and underemployed in our region. They don’t need and won’t use(heavily) subsidized commuting options to downtown Bellevue or Seattle.
ST and RTID could have sought a per-capita tax on employers (two bucks a month per employee). Why wouldn’t that have been better than more sales taxes? We have just about the most regressive tax system in the country.
At least with gas taxes it tends to drive down use, and State gas tax money gets spent on road infrastructure. With sales taxes for trains there is no linkage.
Puddybud,
Hey, don’t bring my Porsche into this, them could be fightin’ words!!! And you know I can take you down; syndrome!!
So the cost of the underyling raw product is the same as last year, and yet we’re paying through the nose. Can you say: “En-ron like ma-nip-u-la-tion?” Yeah, those Texas based, Repubilican supporting energy companies would never think of screwing “Grandma” over, right?!?!?
C’mon!
BTW, when are you gonna have “hammer time” with you know who?
“Ditto 9/11 and President Bush.
Thanks GBS”
NO, thank you, Right Stuff, for squarely putting the blame of 9/11 on Bush where is rightly belongs.
IF only he would have gon after al Qeada as soon as it was confirmed to him that bin Laden was behind the attack 6 days into his presidency.
IF only he would have taken the threat of terrorism seriously.
IF only he would have mentioned terrorism, al Qeada or bin Laden when he addressed NATO regarding the top threats facing the West.
IF only he would have listened to Richard Clarke about how serious the threat of terrorism was.
IF only he would have taken action on the Aug. 6 PDB regarding bin Laden and al Qeada wanting to use commercial airplanes to attack inside the US while on vacation 42% of the time in his first year.
IF only he didn’t have family/business ties to the bin Laden family he wouldn’t have let them escape from America after 9/11.
IF only he sent in American troops to Tora Bora to capture bin Laden instead of outsourcing our fight to Afghanistan war lords who could easily be bought for bin Laden’s safe passage.
IF only he followed his own doctrine that there would be no safe harbor for terrorist and went in to Pakistan to kill bin Laden.
IF only he didn’t kick the weapons inspectors out of Iraq who were about to conclude there were NO WMD’s or WMD programs 3,400 Americans would still be alive today.
IF only you were patriotic to America instead of loyal to your party we’d be a better country.
Thanks for siding with the terrorist.
Harry: I don’t get it.
In the Bible, it say all men (women) shall die. This was the edit God gave to all of us in Genesis 3. I do not believe in going to heaven when you die. It’s not Biblical. Read Ecces 9 or Psalms 14. Why would Jesus tell his Disciples he’s coming back if everyone goes to Heaven, especially someone like Gloomy Gus Still Stupid? Why did Frank Sinatra offer the Pope $$$ to get him into heaven and the Pope refused?
When Stephen Hawking saw the evidence for a finely-tuned universe he remarked, “There must be religious overtones, but I think most scientists prefer to shy away from the religious side of it.”
Should the State constitution be amended to allow gas tax revenue to be spent on mass transit and alternative energy R&D? Yes, absolutely! Hiding behind what has been done in transportation funding in the past is a canard.
All you whiners can drive your 10 square boxes until the wheels fall off, so long as your anti-social behavior funds the rail transit the region requires.
The alternative fuel R&D is really a short term bridge to get to a more mass transit oriented transportation system. Earth can’t survive the automobile.
21. Take your childish flapdoodle and tell it to the Marines.
Why is that you and GBS are always showing up at the same time. You two an item?
Goldy,
While I agree that our appetite for oil borders on perception that cheap gas is some right Jefferson fought for….I’m reluctant to purposely changing the markets to shove mass transit down all Washintonians throats.
The cold, hard fact about mass transit for one to spend less resources than the cars they replace…..you need to have a gnarly population density. Certainly Seattle Metro qualifies….but when you start doing State Constitution amendments…..one size doesn’t fit all.
Clearly mass transit in Waterville is a non-starter, but even in places like Tri-Cities it’s a borderline proposition where partly filled buses with employees drawing sizable benefits may use more gas than cars.
However, I’m all for more diamond lanes so I can zip around on my form of micro mass-transit (aka motorcycle).
Sorry, I forgot, it is all part of your mindless attempt to prove that you exist.
Who care? have I asked that before?
Speaking of Texas Oil Companies: Let me post this for your to READ AGAIN
Source: Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
“May 7, 2007, 12:44AM
Houston-area firms steering PAC money to Democrats
PAC money is steered toward party that heads key committees
By BENNETT ROTH
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — Several large Houston-area companies in the Republican-leaning energy industry and other sectors have been shifting federal campaign contributions to Democrats, who are flexing their new power in Congress as they draft legislation on energy and the environment.
Political action committees for companies including ConocoPhillips, BP Corp. and Continental Airlines gave a significantly higher percentage of their contributions to Democrats in the first quarter of 2007 than they did for the November 2006 election, when Republicans lost their majorities in the House and Senate.
Corporate officials warned that first quarter contributions in a two-year election cycle should not be interpreted as an indication of a major change in long-term giving strategy. And some business PACs, including that of energy giant ExxonMobil, are still contributing largely to Republican lawmakers and candidates.
Nevertheless, some Texas mega-employers seem to be following the national trend of businesses steering more of their PAC money to Democrats, who now head the key committees where legislation is drafted.”
Regarding taking me down, I won’t even grace that comment. Friends don’t fight friends – do they?
GBS I have a post in the filter that has Texas based ConocoPhillips, and BP Corp. and Continental Airlines giving a significantly higher percentage of their contributions to Democrats in the first quarter of 2007.
It goes deeper but there must be some word the filter doesn’t like or when the filter detects real truth from MSM links it stops the post.
Harry:
Calling the Bible childish flapdoodle?
Steven Hawking is a liar now? I saw another comment he made about an Intelligent Creator but I can’t find it right now.
Matty:
Since it’s claimed that the vast majority of Moonbat!s live in Pierce/King/Snohomish Counties, why are these roads congested with their cars?
Where are their carbon credits being purchased from?
Why can’t they walk or bike to work?
Why can’t they take Sound Transit or Community Transit or King County Metro?
Cuz they like their foreign cars with the Kerry/Edwards stickers on them
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Poli.....id=3165636
More Democrat lies to “working class, middle income Americans”
“House Democrats are suddenly balking at the tough lobbying reforms they touted to voters last fall as a reason for putting them in charge of Congress.
Now that they are running things, many Democrats want to keep the big campaign donations and lavish parties that lobbyists put together for them.”
Right Stuff commentary: Typical that Democrats have to lie about who they are to be elected….Meanwhile our country is at war and the Democrat controlled congress in unable to fullfill antother of it’s campaign promises….To bring the troops home now!
BTW GBS: That was from the Democratic Underground! I love that site. I LMAO when I read that filth!
Now that I established ConocoPhillips is giving money to Moonbat!s they screw them on a tax break for alternative energy:
“Bloomberg: Democrats Target Tax Break for ConocoPhillips, Tyson
Interesting artricle on Bloomberg: Democrats Target Tax Break for ConocoPhillips, Tyson, by Ryan J. Donmoyer:
Democrats in Congress plan to reverse an IRS ruling [Notice 2007-37] that allowed ConocoPhillips and Tyson Foods Inc. to benefit from a tax break for producing alternative energy. If adopted, the legislation would threaten a joint venture announced this week by ConocoPhillips and Tyson to produce diesel fuel from animal fat. Lawmakers said that the tax credit was intended to benefit new technologies using animal carcasses and other food waste and that the companies pressured Bush administration officials to redefine it. …
ConocoPhillips, the third-largest U.S. oil company, and Tyson, the world’s biggest meat producer, said this week they plan to jointly develop diesel fuel from animal fat. The IRS notice also allows refiners to claim the credit if they produce diesel using vegetable oils.”
Amazing. So I guess Moonbat!s like us to STAY on oil!
Hawking said in “A Brief History of Time” that the Catholic Church screwed up with Galileo when it insisted that the sun went around the earth. A few years previously, he was invited to the Vatican to advise on cosmology. An audience with the pope was granted and said it was all right to study the universe after the big bang, but not the big bang itself because that was the moment of Creation, the work of God, in other words. “I was glad then that he did not know the subject of the talk I had just given at the conference — the possibility that space- time was finite but had no boundary, which means that it had no beginning, no moment of Creation. I had no desire to share the fate of Galileo…”, Hawking mused.
Later, Hawking said “In that case, it would not be necessary to appeal to God to decide how the universe began. This doesn’t prove that there is no God, only that God is not necessary.”
Just when did Hawking have his epiphany?
Putty has a problem understanding people who can accept contradictory ideas at the same time.
What about renewable fuels Voice of Chalk Scratching?
The production of ethanol in the U.S. rose to an all-time record of 4.9 billion gallons last year, up more than 24 percent from 2005 levels.
http://www.drivingethanol.org/.....perts.aspx
But Moonbat!s said these are the flyover states. Who cares about them. Bush is doing nothing for Greenhouse Gases! Wrong again.
No Harry Tuttle I have problems with your people who are rigid and can’t accept another viewpoint!
I said Hawking said this you said Hawking said that.
David,
I disagree with you on this one. There is a fundamental difference between the line of thinking on the East and West Coast. While the East Coast may have no problem with not owning a car and using mass transit; the West Coast has the mentality that owning and driving their car is not a privilege but a right.
Raising the gas tax, while yes will relieve some of the stress on transit, will not get rid of the problem. In order for mass transit to work there has to be a stop on all urban sprawl. Build the city up higher and more dense. This however will mean that some of our more beloved neighborhoods will be torn down and 15 to 25+ story buildings will then be put in there place.
Once you make it nearly impossible to move around the city itself with a car then you will have a call for mass transit. Until then, I believe, most people will still use there cars at $5.00/gallon or more. Just take a look at NY or Chicago and their transit systems. They are there due to the need and not a want. Seattle right now wants mass transit, but isn’t a need. Force the need and you will then obtain the transit.
In order to pay for this we should add fees onto all new construction. Add a minimal 1% tax or fee on these multi-million dollar projects and you will quickly have the money for a transit system that works.
http://www.myspace.com/chrisontheradio
@37
most people live here precisely because it is not like chicago, NYC, Philidelphia etc…
We should NOT model after an east coast city….
36. Wrong, again, Putty. Hawking said it doesn’t matter, at least in the matter of the universe, whether there is a god, or not. So, if someone wants to put religious overtones on it, he won’t object.
It’s his way of being non-argumentative.
It is you who took his sop to the Bible-thumpers as some sort of conversion when you said “Steven Hawking is a liar now?”
I think the quote you can’t come up with by Hawking probably concerns just how the whole ball-of-wax, the space-time continuum (the extent of the “ball-of-wax”, possibly), came about. He can answer all the rest, so his joke is “If I can’t figure it out, it must be God.” Just like it was once thought of fire.
@2 – @10 RS, if you’re referring to a post in a previous thread I had to break up into fragments, that was because Goldy’s web site wouldn’t accept the post intact. Every time I tried to post it, I got an error page. I had to break it up into pieces, and I also had to remove all the semicolons, or it wouldn’t have posted at all. Why? I don’t know, but my #1 theory is that some rightwing saboteur was hacking HA. It’s the sort of thing you assholes do routinely. Now go fuck yourself and pet the armadillo you rode in on.
@15 RS, you’re paying way more than $3.50 for gas and don’t even realize it! At $3.50 a gallon, gasoline is heavily subsidized by taxpayers. In addition to the pump price, you’re paying for defense to protect the oilfields and keep the tanker routes open, and you’re paying for the wars fought to keep the oil flowing (such as Iraq). If you really sat down and figured it out, there’s a good chance you’re paying over $10 a gallon for gas right now. Unless you’re cheating on your taxes, which I wouldn’t put past your ilk.
Alright, let’s do some “straight talk express” about why gas prices are high and rising this spring. It isn’t a mystery, as MSM have been reporting on it for weeks.
Refinery bottlenecks in the U.S.
That’s it in one sentence. There have been some crude supply issues recently, notably shutdowns in Nigeria due to political unrest there, but the world crude situation is relatively stable — there has not been a sudden spike in demand or an abrupt fall in supply, and crude prices are holding fairly steady in the low $60s.
It’s mainly due to bad luck in the domestic refining industry. This is the time of year that refineries switch over from winter heating fuels to gasoline production for summer driving. However, a refinery fire in Indiana took hundreds of thousands of barrels a day off line, and a couple of other less drastic refinery problems have added to the refinery production shortfall. As a result, domestic gasoline inventories are low, and oil companies are rationing supply at the pump.
The winger blogosphere frequently blames NIMBYs, environmentalists, and Democrats for declining U.S. refinery capacity. There is some foundation for this, in that major oil companies have tried to pin refinery closures on environmentalists and NIMBYism in a bid to get environmental regulations relaxed (so they can make even more profit). But, when you look at the facts, it’s all bullshit.
Why? Simple. Because U.S. refinery capacity has INCREASED since the early 1990s. It’s true the NUMBER of domestic refineries today is about half what it was in 1990. But that doesn’t matter; what matters is refinery CAPACITY, and that’s been growing. In a nutshell, the oil companies have been closing old, small, inefficient refineries while adding capacity to large refineries. It’s true you can’t build a new refinery in, say, Medina or Laurelhurts without encountering neighborhood opposition or permitting obstacles. But there is NO PERMIT, ENVIRONMENTAL, OR NIMBY issue with adding more cracking towers, pipes, etc., to the huge refinery complexes that already exist in Texas and Louisiana, and that’s what the oil companies have been doing for the last 15 years. So much so, in fact, that U.S. domestic refining capacity has grown every year since early in the Clinton presidency, and continues to grow.
Of course, the piggish ways of American motorists don’t help, either. When oil prices temporarily fell early in this decade, a tidal wave of buyers inundated car lots snapping up gas guzzling SUVs and pickups. The huge consumer investment in those vehicles resulted in a structural demand for gasoline that can’t be quickly or easily mitigated. The normal turnover period for the U.S. vehicle fleet is about 10 years. Meantime, those gas guzzlers have to be fed. People won’t stop commuting to work (or, for that matter, going on vacations) simply because gas is expensive. Instead, they’ll dig deeper in their pockets, grumble, and buy less of other consumer goods. And the U.S. auto industry, which geared up to produce and sell those high-profit-margin gas guzzlers, can’t quickly respond to high gas prices, either. The ripple effects are: Contracting consumer spending in other sectors that has slowed economic growth and may lead to a recession; and the possible destruction of the domestic auto industry. Ford may go under; and General Motors, while expected to survive, is likely to emerge as a much smaller company with less market share — permanently.
Wingnuts laughed at Al Gore when, over a decade ago, he suggested a 50-cent federal gas tax. That was when gas was about $1.25 a gallon. If such a tax had been enacted, and had kept people from buying all those gas guzzling vehicles, gas might be $2.25 today instead of $3.50. Looks like Al will get the last laugh on that one. The stupid wingnuts shot themselves in the foot AGAIN.
One final point. Gas taxes do not cost you one cent at the point. Pump prices are determined by supply and demand. The oil companies can’t supply all the gas you stupid humans want to consume at $2.50 a gallon, so they keep raising the price until you cut back on your consumption to a level they can supply. Economists call it “price rationing.” Conversely, if inventory accumulates because drivers aren’t buying all the gas the refineries are producing, oil companies cut the price to move inventory. They have so much profit margin they can knock $1.50 off the price and still make money. But they don’t make a penny from unsold gasoline sitting in storage tanks. Now let’s say you impose a 50-cent federal tax on $3.50 gas. If the supply-demand balance point is at $3.50 — which the market is telling us it is — then gas will still sell for $3.50. Such a tax will have no effect on short-term demand or price, because as long as consumers are willing to pay $3.50 for X amount of gas, that’s what the price will be. That 50 cents will come out of oil company coffers; and if you take it away from the oil companies and invest it in mass transit, you will in the long run decrease both the demand for motor fuels (assuming drivers get out of their cars and use the mass transit you build) and the supply of motor fuels. Why? Because oil companies can’t invest that money in producing expensive crude (e.g., offshore, arctic oil, tar sends) or expanding refinery capacity.
Any questions?
Long-term, the outlook for crude and pump prices is not pretty. We may get a receding of pump prices late this year or next year back to a $2.50 to $3.00 level (or we may not). And U.S. and world refining capacity will continue to increase. But history has shown that American drivers will not give up their gas guzzlers, much less their cars, even if they have to sacrifice other discretionary spending. Driving their hogs is a very high priority for them, and they’ll even send the wife out to “work” on the streets and sell the kids to keep their SUVs and pickups, if they have to. In the 3-to-5 year horizon, we may even get a fall in crude prices back to the $45 to $50 level, and gas wars here at home. Who knows, we may even see $2 gas again — briefly and temporarily. But long-term, the producing nations and industry can no longer supply world consumption from cheap sources, and the marginal sources needed to meet demand at $3-gas levels aren’t profitable to produce, transport, and refine unless oil prices consistently stay above $40. As the world’s reserves of light sweet crude are depleted, we have to increasingly rely on expensive offshore, arctic, and tar sands oil. In addition, that oil is not only more expensive, but lower quality. It has higher sulfur content, and is thicker and less viscous. The refineries built to process light sweet crude can’t process this stuff without expensive modifications — or, in many cases, replacing the whole refinery complex. You need vessels, piping, and pipelines engineered for the chemical composition of the less desirable crude we now have to use to meet market demand. It takes not only time, but also vast amounts of money, to build that infrastructure. And oil companies won’t make that investment unless they feel confident market prices will stay above the break-even point for those investments. That price point is around $45 to $50. So, any fall in market prices below that level — and the only market force that could bring about such a fall is a severe global recession — would bring investment in nonconventional crude productiona and refining to a halt, triggering a new cycle of tight supplies and spiking prices.
Where is all this going? My advice is burn this gas while you can still get it cheap, because it will take $100 oil to replace light sweet crude with tar sands production, and there’s where we’re headed, and within 10 years this cheap $3.50 gas will be only a fond memory.
@6 See #42. And your contribution to this discussion is — ?
@7 Because they’re not as car crazy or car dependent as we are. European gas prices have been $6 to $8 for years, and Mass transit is ubiquitous — so much so, that you can go almost anywhere in Europe without a car. One advantage they have is that with gas prices that high to begin with, pump prices stay relatively stable and they don’t notice spikes in crude or refinery prices nearly as much as we do. But the U.S. is not Europe. We not only have a car culture, we’re car dependent. We don’t have their public transportation infrastructure, and most Americans can’t get to their jobs (or even to a grocery store) without a car. Whereas a POV (privately owned vehicle) is a luxury in Europe, it’s a necessity in the U.S. And because we’re also in love with our market-based economy, as opposed to the much more socialistic systems in more European countries, we’re ideologically determined to let individuals freely choose to own inefficient vehicles, and to let the market punish them for doing it. And that’s exactly what the market is doing. It isn’t the Democrats’ fault; and, to be honest, it isn’t even the Republicans’ fault very much. American drivers have no one to blame but themselves.
35 That’s all wonderful, Puddy, except most of the ethanol in the US is made from corn, the cultivation and harvesting of which consumes more fuel than the alcohol replaces. It’s just another of Archer Daniels Midland’s scams to cash in on the government subsidies they’ve lobbied both parties for for decades. And yes, I’m more than willing to admit the Dems have allowed themselves to be snookered on this one right along with the Republicans.
The recent increase in production of corn-derived ethanol here has already had repercussions in Mexico due to the resulting rise in the price of corn, which is their principal staple grain. Of course, for a poor nation to allow itself to become dependent on the United States for food has to be the height of dumbfuckery.
The corn-squeezins-for-fuel scam, however, isn’t the worst. The adoption of heavily subsidized corn-derived fructose in place of beet or cane sugar bu most of our food industry is likely the cause of the rapidly growing epidemic of type 2 diabetes. This is going to lead to an awful lot of us dying the way Jerry Falwell just did.
Now, the argument for mass transit seems to be that we should move closer to the European model. If the basis of the argument is that we’re going to continue suffering pain at the pump if we don’t, well yes, that’s true. But America, especially the western states, is not Europe. Their land area is more compact and their population densities afford more mass transportation efficiencies than ours. If you’re a rancher in Texas, or a construction worker living in Spokane and working on highway projects all over eastern Washington, to talk about mass transit is meaningless; and to get those folks on board for higher gas taxes to pay for mass transit is a hopeless proposition. You’ll never get them to understand that gas taxes have no effect on pump prices.
However, we do need to scrutinize our urban transportation systems, because you couldn’t create a worse system than what we have if you assembled a team of talented engineers to design one. What we have is people driving 50 or even 100 miles each day, every work day, to get to their jobs. Even worse, they’re sitting for an hour or more in stop-and-go traffic with idling engines consuming fuel and spewing pollution into the air. This not only wastes fuel, pollutes the air, and contributes to global warming; it also destroys their expensive vehicles. There’s no quicker way to wear out the engine, transmission, and brakes than lurching forward a few feet, then stopping again, for miles on end.
We need to think outside the box. Mass transit won’t get large numbers of commuters out of their cars unless and until transit goes exactly where they need to go, exactly when they need to go there, and is comfortable, and is perceived to be safe. Our transit systems fall short on all four counts, by a lot, and there’s a very long way to go. And then you have to overcome deeply entrenched attitudes that by-God-this-is-America-and-I-have-a-God-given-right-to-drive-my-car-that-I-worked-hard-for-and-I-don’t-want-to-sit-next-to-you-on-a-bus. Frankly, I don’t think it can be done — at least, not for the next 50 years. It’ll have to wait until the Car Generations die off.
We need to think outside the box. By that I mean, we need to reconfigure the design and layout of our urban areas and the organization of our economy so that people don’t have to live 50 miles from their jobs and drive 100 miles a day to make a living. We need to replace freeway lanes with broadband, and vast swaths of land zoned as residential or industrial with dispersed offices and factories. We need to visualize a society where people can walk to work. If we don’t, we’ll continue to live on borrowed time, because our current way of life is coming to an end regardless of whether we deliberately replace it with something more rational or planetary realities cause its collapse.
35, 45 The massive diversion of corn supplies to fuel production is having a very immediate and direct effect on food prices. Not only does it take as much energy to produce ethanol as you get, but it also reduces human and livestock food supplies and drives up the price of everything from milk to bread.
If we don’t redesign our cities in a rational way, this is what the daily commute will look like after the oil runs out: http://tinyurl.com/2lnsg2
@11 “On average Europeans pay $4 more a gallon because of taxes. Why not emulate Europe? John Effin Kerry thinks we should!”
Kerry never proposed a $4 tax. But the answer to your question is, a few years ago we had a choice of paying Al Gore’s 50-cent tax or paying $2.25 more to the oil companies, and you rightwing geniuses chose the latter.
It speaks for itself. You fuck ups can’t do ANYTHING right.
@17 “Since gaining this knowledge, industrialization has let loose a ticking time bomb of greebhouse gases that now threaten everybody on the planet”
Yeah, but the wingnut captains of industry running our economy (and government) understand that it threatens some people more than others, and they don’t give a shit what happens to Pacific Islanders, Eskimos, and urban dwellers in Bangladesh.
@18 The only thing you proved is that you didn’t read or don’t comprehend what you linked to.
@19 At last a rational, well informed comment. I agree. I’m a “no” vote on the regional tax package, because it takes food off my table that I don’t have income to replace.
(In response to the inevitable questions about my stock portfolio, all my investments are held in tax-sheltered retirement accounts I won’t access for many years yet; and when the time comes, that money will be needed to replace the pension that’s being destroyed by inflation. So, I can’t spend today’s income on RTID taxes because that’s today’s food money; and I can’t cash out those stocks because that’s my future food money.)
@52 (continued) The problem is not the idea of expanding mass transit in the Puget Sound region, or even the cost. As always, the problem is (a) those who want it making someone else pay, and (b) the “someone else” being those least able to pay.
Well sir, they need my assent before they can take my money for mass transit I don’t need, won’t use, and can’t afford; and my assent will not be given. They should have talked to me first, before they put this tax package together. I wasn’t invited to a single focus group on the subject.
@21 “Puddybud Who Left The Reservation says: I do not believe in going to heaven when you die.”
Well, you finally got something right, puddinghead. Probably the first time in your life. You’re right, you’re not going to heaven when you die. No wingnuts allowed. But, to paraphrase Tonto’s famous retort to the Lone Ranger: “What you mean ‘you’, wingnut?”
@21 “When Stephen Hawking saw the evidence for a finely-tuned universe he remarked, ‘There must be religious overtones, but I think most scientists prefer to shy away from the religious side of it.’”
Anything Hawking says is over your head, pudding. It’s not exactly clear how you interpreted his remark, but it’s not very likely that you interpreted it correctly.
Hawking seems to be saying that he believes in God, but his job requires scientific objectivity, therefore he shouldn’t talk about his subjective beliefs and objective research in the same forum.
@25 How did you manage to miss the point that a constitutional amendment that ALLOWS but does not REQUIRE localities to spend gas taxes on mass transit allows each area of the state to tailor its gas tax spending on its own local needs?
@27 “GBS I have a post in the filter that has Texas based ConocoPhillips, and BP Corp. and Continental Airlines giving a significantly higher percentage of their contributions to Democrats in the first quarter of 2007.”
If you dig a little deeper, puddy, you’ll find that’s happening across the board in corporate America, not just the oil industry. The two-fold explanation is simple:
1) The people who run corporations, who generally are there through a merit selection process and are far more competent than the Bush administration, perceive their long-term corporate interests as being hurt by the incompetencies of the Republican Party; and
2) They figure they’ll have to do business with Democrats after 2008, so they want to buy access now while they can.
PelletHead@42: Man your argument is so compelling except for one thing, where are the facts?
Hmmm…? Well Puddy knows where the “facts” are kept. Puddy knows many facts.
http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil.....e_runs.htm
@28 I believe in God, but the notion that only the Christian conception of God is valid, and the Christian Bible is the only legitimate source of religious teaching, is indeed flapdoodle. If there is a God — and I believe there is — I can’t conceive of Her condemning people to Hell just because they were born into a Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, or pagan culture, unless She is a very unjust God, but we’re told by our Christian Bible that she is not.
PelletHead postulates: “Hawking seems to be saying that he believes in God”
Really? That’s not what the “Voter Advocate” seems to think. Thanks for agreeing with me PelletHead!
@29 I suppose it’s too much to hope for you to conceptualize that there’s a qualitative difference between a car getting 25 mpg and a pickup getting 12 mpg. That, too, flies over your head.
BTW: I like my gas guzzler. When the wife has projects, we use the gas guzzler. Amazing how many plaster and plywood boards, designer stones and bricks, plants and trees you can fit into a GUZZLER!
BTW why are KC Moonbat!s driving to work anyway?
ROGER RABBIT QUIZ #1
Who is more likely to drive a Prius?
[ ] 1. A granola-snacking eco-freak with “Free Tibet” and “Kerry-Edwards” bumper stickers on her car; or
[ ] 2. A wingnut with a gun rack in his rear window and a “Bush-Cheney” bumper sticker on his bumper.
PelletHead@47: So alternative fuel sources are out of the question for you. I’m sure your “paws” will “learn” to ride that bike real soon now!
Remember yous a Moonbat! Give up driving reduce that carbon footprint!
[X] 1. A granola-snacking eco-freak with “Free Tibet” and “Kerry-Edwards” bumper stickers on her car
ROGER RABBIT QUIZ #2
Who is more likely to drive a gas guzzling pickup?
ROGER RABBIT QUIZ #1
Who is more likely to drive a Prius?
[ ] 1. A wingnut with a gun rack in his rear window and a “Bush-Cheney” bumper sticker on his bumper.
[ ] 2. A granola-snacking eco-freak with “Free Tibet” and “Kerry-Edwards” bumper stickers on her car; or
@59 “PelletHead@42: Man your argument is so compelling except for one thing, where are the facts?”
At the U.S. Department of Energy web site you linked to.
It’s all in the interpretation, puddy, in the interpretation.
Psssst … there’s not much you can do with someone who looks at the moon and sees green cheese.
Well, I have to do some chores. So, later wingnut traitors. I’ll see you when I see you, unless they hang you for treason first.
PelletHead@49: Where did I say Kerry suggests $4 tax on gas? Is the marble rolling over the paramecium brain cell again?
Yes PelletHead, you interpret while I deliver the graphs. I report, ASSWipes can decide! All you said was blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah Burp blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah Fart blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah Sort blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
[X] 1. An eco-terrorist visiting UW to set fire to the critter lab with a Kerry-Edwards sticker.
[X] 2. An eco-terrorist visiting a SUV dealership setting fire to the SUVs on the lot.
[X] 3. An eco-terrorist visiting Camano Island to set fire to a large domicile under construction who were eco-freaks as they were using the wood from the old house over again!
PelletHead@58: If you only could follow a thread. GBS in 20 asked about Texas corporations. I answered and gave him three. You on the other hand missed the thread connection because the paramecium can’t remember more than 3 words. Maybe that’s why you post in three words so much.
I bet #42 & #46 were written by Mrs PelletHead
@38 “most people live here precisely because it is not like chicago, NYC, Philidelphia etc…
We should NOT model after an east coast city….”
Then realize that mass transit won’t work on any large scale due to people wanting to drive their cars everywhere. It’s that simple.
“Puddy knows many facts.”
Baaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa haaa
Stop IT! Yer killin’ me!!
Oh, tell us the Able Danger facts again.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Oh, shit, you actually believe what you say don’t you?!?
That’s funny and scary at the same time.
60 I’m with you there, Roger. I’m an adult convert to Catholicism (being Irish by marriage) and way back then I specifically asked the priest conducting my catechumenate class whether the church excluded those in other religions (or for that matter, “noble savages”) from grace. He told me no, that the current thinking at the time was that Catholic believers should be able to say “we know we have the way”, but that we couldn’t really say whether someone else did or did not.
Well, that was nearly thirty years ago. Now, that priest has resigned the priesthood (no, I don’t know the details as to why), the former Inquisitor who targeted Archbishop Hunthausen is in the driver’s seat in Rome telling us all with filthy sinners we are, and the wife talks about becoming Lutheran every time there’s a new story about the pedophilic-priests scandal.
And all around, I see people doing absolutely disgusting things in the name of God.
About all I can think of is that maybe I should shut up and pray more.
Puddybud @ 27 & 75:
You missed my point. I knew I shouldn’t have thrown in the Texas comment, that threw you didn’t it?
What I was alluding to was the fact that energy companies DO in fact manipulate energy prices. This is exactly what the whole “fake” electrical shortage was all about in California, right after Bush was appointed the presidency by the Supreme Court.
Enron did in fact manipulate the energy markets. So, too, are oil companies. They’re stealing from us while they can.
GBS prediction: Come Nov. 08, when it’s clear we will own the White House, the House and a filibuster proof majority in the Senate, you can damn well bet gas prices will fall below #2.35 per gallon.
Roger Rabbit, you better unload all those oil stocks before late summer in ’08. Institutional investors will damn sure be unloading their stocks abou then taking the sure profits.
In fact, that will be the indicator that the White House will go Democratic, when big investors start dumping oil/energy securities.
You heard it here first. You’re welcome.
Puddybud @ 74:
A little over the top on the believability scale, but funny.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhh, ECO-TERRORIST scare me!!!”
Puddybud, you’re ruining the street cred of big, scary, black men everywhere!!
I know an awful lot of Seattle voters who will not vote to approve another gas tax of any kind until the state’s constitution is amended.
By the time WSDOT, ST, and RTID are through, it will be quicker to get from Lake Stevens to downtown Seattle than it will be to get from West Seattle to Swedish.
channeling Jack Benny…
I’m thinking, I’m thinking!
GBS: Each of those acts in #74 happened by your Eco-terrorist friends. Google it.
GBS: If the oil companies are still stealing from us I thought Nancy Pelosi and her gang were to stop it.
She campaigned on this BIG time. And since the prices are higher now your gang is in power, what is going on GBS?
There is no speculation, these are facts.
Re: Congressional polling data
That’s one poll which may be an outlier. Please remember as well we’ve had more than a decade of Republican rule to sour us all on Congress.
What matters are trends. The president’s is clearly down. Congress’ isn’t clearly anything right now, four months into Democratic legislation. Although it seems pretty clear that Demcrats are a LOT more popular than Republicans, and have higher party ID.
Oh, and though it’s a single data point and not a trend, the last Speaker Pelosi’s approval rating I read was 41%, with something like (I didn’t go look it up) low to mid 20s disapproval.
Roger Rabbit’s post at #42 is probably the only smart contribution to this entire thread, including the original post.
84 Pud
Spekaer Pelosi campaigned on WHAT “big time?” This appears to be an area where your citations have deserted you. I think you should support your assertion about her campaign. Seems to me the Democrats ran on Republican corruption and ending the occupation of Iraq.
But keep in mind that the Democratic Congress has been in session only since January 20, that the previous Republican Congress left the entire budget for them to pass instead of passing it themselves (the rotten lazy bastards — http://thehill.com/leading-the.....01-30.html), and we’re a little busy funding operations overseas right now. Government oversight after a decade or so of corruption keeps them busy as well. Don’t worry, they’ll get to the oil companies.
I hate the fact that I have to pay more for gas, but I love to drive like a bat out of hell at 90 MPH. Lower the speed limits and conserve; no that would be too simple and practical. ZOOOOM ZOOOOM
Here’s a rumor…The Postal Service will soon announce that it will peg the price of postage to the price of a gallon of regular un-leaded. Go into any post office and repeat it loud enough for all to hear and see what happens. More fun than you can have without breaking the law.
Time to drill wherever we can find the oil (calling all ANWR’s), and build more refineries in order to increase capacity. Couple that with alternative fuel
research that’s market driven.
Simply increasing the gas tax in order to herd us peasents up the road to salvation whether we wish to go or not is reminiscent of the policies of Uncle Joe Stalin. But he’s your kind of guy, no?
Which is better? More freedom, or less?
The Piper
Daddy Love: I thought you were one of the more level headed ones. But I see you are just like the rest no memory!
The “Six for ’06” agenda, according to a release from Pelosi’s office, is this:
** Draining the swamp — break the link between lobbyists and legislation and commit to pay-as-you-go budgeting, no new deficit spending – Well ABC News.Com already said they are backtracking on this point
** Making America more secure — implement the independent 9/11 Commission recommendations
** Giving Americans a raise — increase the minimum wage
** Making college more affordable — cut the interest rate in half on federally subsidized student loans
** Making health care more affordable — negotiate for lower prescription drug prices
** Ending subsidies for Big Oil [emphasis mine]
** Giving hope to families with devastating diseases — allow stem cell research
Press Release from 08-04-06
I did my piece! I no longer drive into Seattle, smoke cigars at their cigar bars, dine or go to the rep (season ticket holder for many years) or the Seattle center area. I no longer spend any money at all in the town. So I am proud to help the Seattle Mayor, and I won’t be poluting their landscape with my presence or $$$ any more.
@65 “So alternative fuel sources are out of the question for you.”
I didn’t say that, puddinghead. What I will say is that I have limited expectations for you. For example, I don’t expect you to grasp that it takes oil to grow corn to make ethanol, or to understand that the USA does not have enough agricultural land to grow enough corn to make enough ethanol to replace the oil we consume. There isn’t a substitute for oil, puddy. Let me repeat that phrase: There isn’t a substitute for oil.
@92 OK. Now that we’ve established that there isn’t a substitute for oil, and that our way of life will collapse when the oil runs out, how smart is it to commute 100 miles a day to work in a vehicle that gets 12 or 15 mpg because you fucking feel like it? Go ahead, dumbass. It’s no fur off my back! I’ve got my paws; I don’t need oil. Oil is what companies I own stock in sell to idiots like you for what the market will bear; and the market will bear a lot! If you think $3.50 gas is expensive, you ain’t seen nothing yet. I’m not the only investor who knows that. Why do you think my oil stock has doubled in the last year?
Now let me explain something else to you gun-rack dumbshits. Paying higher gas prices does not increase supply. Why should producer countries spend billions of dollars on more wells, pipelines, separators, and transshipment terminals to drive down the price of the product they sell?
Fee Rickshaws for all libs. Inquire within!
There’s lots of oil, but your side won’t let anyone drill for it, build refineries for it, or use it.
How’s Al going to get to his speaking engagements without his private jet sucking $ of fuel?
Here’s the deal with gas prices, folks. The USA imports 60% of the oil we consume. Most of it comes from Canada, Mexico, and Saudi Arabia. The majority of Mexico’s production comes the Cantarell Field, the world’s second-highest producing oilfield. (Only Saudi Arabia’s supergiant Ghawar Field produces more.) But Cantarell production is about to collapse. The geological structure of this oilfield is unique on the planet. What they found there was billions of barrels of oil concentrated in an ancient asteroid impact crater. The sheer concentration of the oil there makes it possible to extract 2 million barrels per day from that field, but this rapid extraction is quickly depleted the oilfield. I repeat, Cantarell production is already collapsing, and within 5 to 7 years there’s going to be a big falloff in production down in Mexico, one of our biggest suppliers. That production won’t be replaced. What would replace it? An oilfield of that size hasn’t been found anywhere in the world in over 30 years. This spells disaster for American consumers at the pump.
@66 Outfuckingstanding! Let’s see how you did on Quiz #2.
See. Fee Rickshaws would be one hellsite cheaper than UnSound transit, and could take a whole boatload of you libs to your government work and back each day. But then again you would never go for a full fare fee to fund your Rickshaw, you’d want “all these good white folk peddling for you for free “like Oprah says she got workin for her”
@74 I don’t see an answer to Quiz #2 here (or anywhere else), so it looks like you get an F on that one, puddinghead. Well, 1 out of 2 ain’t bad — for you. Better than you usually manage.
Eco-arsonists are criminals and should be dealt with as such. However, I note there are far fewer eco-terrorists than abortion terrorists, and eco-terrorists only destroy property and take pains to avoid hurting anyone, whereas abortion terrorists go out of their way to kill and injury people. So, if I have to choose, I like eco-freak terrorists better than wingnut terrorists, puddinghead. They have more class.
@78 “I see people doing absolutely disgusting things in the name of God”
That’s been going on since the dawn of recorded history. There’s nothing new about religionists giving religion a bad name.
That’s why I worship a pagan God. I’m pretty sure it’s the same God, but the wingnuts haven’t corrupted the Mother Rabbit Spirit yet. I suppose that’s coming. When it comes, maybe I’ll worship water, or the sun, or dirt, instead. It doesn’t matter, because She is everywhere. Even the Indians understood that, and they didn’t have Stephen Hawking.
@79 “Roger Rabbit, you better unload all those oil stocks before late summer in ‘08.”
Yeah, I understand that GBS, and I’m on top of it. But not for the reason you believe. I don’t agree that gas is $3.50 because of oil company greed and market manipulation. If only it were so. No, the picture is far grimmer than that.
The consumption numbers tell the tale. In 2000, world consumption was approximately 77 million bpd and production capacity was approximately 85 million bpd. In 2007, consumption is approximately 86 million bpd and production capacity is approximately 86 million bpd.
The ugly fact is our appetite for oil is limitless and insatiable. We will burn every drop the oil companies can wring from the ground. Since there is not, and never will be, enough oil to fulfill everyone’s appetite for the stuff, it will go to the highest bidder. You will pay whatever you have to, to take oil away from India and China and other wannabe countries, because you have no choice. The oil companies will keep raising prices until enough consumers drop out of the bidding to bring demand down to the level of what they can supply, because they have no choice, unless either they or the government adopts some other form of rationing. The alternatives are rationing cards, or 10-gallon limits, or being able to buy gas only on odd days or even days depending on your license number. They are going to charge whatever it takes to get you to consume less, even if it takes $15 a gallon.
Commuting 100 miles a day in stop-and-go traffic isn’t inevitable. Americans didn’t always live like that. And I guarantee we will not continue to live like that. Long before the oil runs out, it will become so expensive that no one will even consider such consuming it with such profligate abandon as we do today.
84 They aren’t our friends, puddinghead, but as I said above, eco-terrorists have more class than your abortion terrorist friends.
@89 Drilling ANWR will accomplish what? Besides threatening one of the world’s most important wildlife refuges? ANWR can supply the world’s oil demand for 3 fucking months. Why should we sacrifice one of conservation’s crown jewels for that? You are a pinhead.
@90 “Ending subsidies for Big Oil [emphasis mine]”
Promised and DELIVERED (emphasis mine):
“House Votes to Rescind Oil Drillers’ Tax Breaks
WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 — House Democrats easily passed legislation on Thursday that would rescind $14 billion in tax breaks and subsidies for oil drillers …. The bill will rescind $7.6 billion in tax breaks for oil drillers that Congress passed in 2004 and 2005 and will add $6.3 billion in royalties from companies that pump oil and gas in publicly owned waters of the Gulf of Mexico and off Alaska.”
http://tinyurl.com/2empls
Roger Rabbit Commentary: The 110th Congress convened on Jan. 3 and the House passed this bill on Jan. 18. Thanks for playing, puddy. It’s been a pleasure kicking your ass again.
@91 Thanks. We appreciate your absence. You can go back to fucking your horse now.
@95 “There’s lots of oil”
Yes, but there’s not lots of cheap oil. In fact, there’s no longer enough cheap oil to meet current demand, which has to be satisfied in part with expensive conventional oil (deep offshore, arctic, etc). When the conventional oil runs out, there’s lots of unconventional oil (tar sands, oil shale, coal conversation, etc.) but none of it is cheap.
Conventional reserves are about 900 billion bbls. World consumption is about 31 billion bbls. Do the math. Remember, the remaining crude gets real expensive long before it runs out, because when there’s not enough people will try to outbid each other for what there is.
@98 I think you’re onto something there, GS. Need a job?
PelletHead@106: Wrong again, oh mindless, ignorant one. Your memory fails you. If you look on ASSWipes I said after the passing of this bill the Futures on Feb 7-8th would rise. I said ARCO gas was $2.33 on January 18th. It’s now over $3.33.
Since your donkocrap morons are running the ship the price of gas has gone up an average $.25 cent per month since January 18th.
Check AssWipes. I called it around January 18th or 19th. You’ll see.
PelletHead@108: Tell your Moonbat! friends in Snohomish/King/Pierce Counties to ride their bikes, walk or take public transportation!
How about an increase in the federal gas tax and a commensurate lowering of tax rates on low income folks? In other words, a revenue neutral tax. it would put a high price on gas and discourage it’s use while not being regressive in effect.