Energy Reform from the Center
By Kevin | Related entries in NewsThe Senate Democrats attempted today to place nearly $29 billion in additional taxes on American oil companies. The intention was to use this pool of money in order to invest in new forms of renewable energy, which most Americans would probably agree is long overdue.
Whether or not you agree with this particular effort by the Dems, it would seem pretty obvious that we need to wean ourselves off of fossil fuels. For the sake of our environment, in addition to our own national security, it’s time for American politicians to start talking tough with the American people. If we hope to truly change anything, we need to be prepared for sacrifices:
This leads me to our current crop of presidential candidates. I think we need a candidate to step forward and say a lot of unpleasant things to the American public. Maybe we need a candidate who’s willing to take a page from Walter Mondale and tell us to suck it up and pay more. Mondale’s “New Realism” certainly didn’t come across the way he had hoped in 1984, but Lord knows we need that kind of candor today.
We need a candidate to tell us that drivers around the world are used to paying far more than we do for gas, and that this is more the norm than the exception. We need a candidate who will embrace renewable forms of energy, in addition to considering options like nuclear energy, which is commonplace in nation’s such as France. It may also require opening up currently protected reserves here in America, so that we can maintain a steady (although stunted) flow of oil, while the nation attempts to transition away from fossil fuels.
It’s unlikely that any one candidate would say all of these things. Democrats and Republicans alike each have their bases and blogger taskmasters to answer to, making it hard to find a middle ground on energy reform. But if we want to get to a place where we no longer need to rely on despots and oil thugs in Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, we will need to change. If we want to protect our planet, we really need to change. We’re already long overdue, and now is the time for one of the presidential candidate’s to step up and talk tough to America.
You can read the post in its entirety on my blog.
I really believe this is an issue designed for the political center. Ultimately, any substantive legislation will have concessions that upset the fringes of each party. Will we ever get there, or is this all wishful thinking?
This entry was posted on Thursday, June 21st, 2007 and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
June 22nd, 2007 at 7:46 am
Unless the government imposes price capping, you and I will be paying the 29$ billion at the pump. Current prices are not set arbitrarily by greedy corporate CEOs who load their profits into glass jars and bury them in the back yard. The prices are set by supply and demand.
The government is better off taxing us directly, its more efficient that way, especially since higher gas prices often hurt poor people disproportionately.
June 22nd, 2007 at 9:27 am
Boy, somebody has his head in the sand. It is all well, and good for people with means to talk about raising the price of fuel, but you have to consider the millions of people in this country, who work for minimum wages, and can’t afford to buy gas at these prices. You talk about how the price of fuel is much more in Europe. Here again you are just not thinking, or you don’t really care. Look at the size of Europe compared to the size of the US. People really need their cars for transportation in this country. It is impossible to get to their jobs without automobiles. I am all for finding newer fuels, but please don’t do it at the expense of the poor, and middle class of this country. They are suffering enough, at the hands of the present administration.
June 22nd, 2007 at 9:39 am
“$29 billion in additional taxes” is rather disingenuous when “the measure would have rescinded a tax break given oil companies in 2004 … and eliminated existing tax credits involving foreign oil production.”
But yes, we need to suck it up and pay more and/or use less.
June 22nd, 2007 at 10:13 am
Any kind of price cap will result in gas camping, where one has to bring a tent and spam to the gas station for your 5 hour wait. http://www.mises.org/story/1894
June 22nd, 2007 at 10:59 am
Jimmy (great name bythe way), I understand your point, and I think I basically echoed your point.
I think it’s not entirely effective to blame a business for making money off of a product that is in very high demand. I agree that we need to deal with a more direct level of taxation, however I don’t know that price capping is the answer.