deleted by soccerdad
Posted by at May 29, 2007 08:17 PMThey wanted to protect against price gouging....before they didn't.
No wonder Leno and Letterman make it look so easy. These people are a joke.
Posted by Sharon at May 29, 2007 09:16 PMI wonder what, exactly, comprises "withering pressure from the oil industry."
What did they threaten to do, give all their money to Republicans again?
Why not just document and publish every attempt by the oil industry to put pressure on Democrats?
Why not do the right thing?
Posted by James E. Powell at May 29, 2007 09:34 PMthats not eceptional from the Idiocrats
Thats common prectice.
The greenies have hurt the country unmeasurably. We should drill here, then kill the Arabic influence. But in the name of environmentalism we dont. How coulod anyone, any fair minded person anyway drink Gore's kool-aid?
js
This is so silly it made me laugh. All of this usually makes me weep so, high grades on the entertainment value...
Stupak should've written "I hate you" in lipstick on the "gougers" car windows. It would have been way more meaty than the bill but a lot less funny.
jsull, try proof reading.
Posted by Judith at May 30, 2007 08:57 AMjsull, try proof reading.
He'll never achieve idiot-proof reading.
And who was saying that the Iraq Funding vote was a one time event, you know, before they got tough?
We are fucked.
Posted by phidipides at May 30, 2007 10:07 AMAs someone who worked as an engineer in that world, I know that wild swings in the price of oil serve the purposes of developing alternatives very badly. Taxes on oil that would stabilize its price at a level comparable to alternative and more renewable sources would certainly drive investment in alternatives. Coal is a sensible part of that mix.
If one really wanted to do any good, one would simply tax excess profits. Does your oil company produce return on capital in excess of 25 percent? Tax the first chunk at a low rate- say 15 persent. Then tax that excess at an 80% marginal rate. This simultaneously provides the incentive for oil and energy companies to invest and a disincentive to underinvest. Since shortages cause excess profits, such a plan would be a powerful stabilizing force. Especially if it were a permanent government policy.
All the rest is just showboating and demagoguery. Guys who behave like Stupak ought to be thrown out on their ears.
Posted by steve at May 30, 2007 12:09 PMThe United States has a Strategic Petroleum Reserve, currently holding about 750 million barrels of crude oil, available for refining in case crude oil supplies are disrupted.
But what about the "refining" part of this equation? What if a huge hurricane (like Katrina) knocks out oil refining facilities again along the Gulf Coast? Or what if disruptions occur at oil refineries because of fire or equip breakdowns?
Awww, you see.
The U.S. needs a Strategic Oil Refining Facility Reserve as well.
American citizens can no longer depend on the oil companies to build enough refineries to handle gasoline shortages that may occur for whatever reason. Refining is a crucial step in the crude oil to gasoline process, and the oil companies have indicated they aren't going to invest some of their excess profits into building more refineries, not even as backups for when what refineries they do have go down.
Therefore, our democratic government must step in, either at the federal or state level, or both.
One suggestion: four states can join together and build one refinery, sharing in the construction cost and the gasoline output, making it possible for citizens in those four states to see lower gas prices.
Of course, the oil companies will cry foul, but this action might just force them to build more refineries which would mean they'd no longer have the excuse of downed refineries as an excuse for high gasoline prices...which is their excuse at present.
Remember when Hurricane Katrina hit? Gulf Coast refineries that were damaged were only down for about three months, and in the interim, gasoline prices only rose by about 20 cents per gallon...and then dropped again.
What we are seeing today is definitely price gouging. And it will only get worse unless our elected representatives step in and hold the oil companies accountable.
Posted by The Oracle at May 31, 2007 09:33 PM