Address pivots to energy pitch

A new effort to to reduce U.S. dependence on oil? Yeah I've heard that before. I wish I had a dollar for every time I've heard it from every president since Nixon.
.
Nobody in our political leadership has been proposing serious energy policy, not for as long as the words 'energy' and 'crisis' have been put together in '73 or '74.
.
There is no honest, real effort by those who lead us to wean this society from the overuse of oil. Nice speeches, catchy slogans, no action. We can't stop using oil altogether, so we'd damn well better start using it wisely.
.
It is incumbent upon the President and the Democratic party (as the powers that be) to draft legislation to give conservation, recycling and efficiency the force of law. I'd be overjoyed to see them put half the effort into that that they put into health care reform.
.
Just two ideas:
1) Rather than something like a Federal gas tax to discourage consumption (and burden the poor and middle incomers) do federal licensing for vehicles based upon weight, HP and fuel efficiency. So if some rich fool wants to drive a monster pickup to the grocery store and office s/he can pay for the damage they do and the funds would go to the commonweal. Obviously, such a law would have to be drafted in a way as to not adversely effect trades people, farmers etc.
2) Another, start a serious push to biofuels from switchgrass and waste, (NOT food crops). Currently favored cornbased ethanol is both cost-ineffective and filthy to produce and burn. Ethanol from waste cellulose, however, is a workable idea. To date, unfortunately, biofuels remain nothing more than a bulletpoint for speeches.
.

We have to do it, ladies and gentlemen, or our environment will continue to be downgraded into the primordial soup, from whence we emerged !! Get rid of the fossil fuels. Now ! President Carter tried to tell America, 35 years ago, about our gluttony for gas, and what did that get him, replaced by the puppet, Ronnie Raygun!! That is how powerful the Oil Corps, and all attending Corps, are. We still have idiots today that believe President Carter was wrong. Well, history will paint a different picture. One that will show that he had the foresight to speak honestly to America, about our gluttony for fossil fuels, which has only increased since his term in Office. Instead, we get a pitchman for the greedy Corporations, an appeaser to Iran, a second rate actor. That is what these, greedy Corporations think of us. They would supplant a serious, intelligent President of America with a script-directed, manipulated drone by the name of Ronnie Raygun. What was Ronnie's first act as President, he ordered the removal of the solar panels that President Carter had installed, around our White House's rooftop, when he was President. So, you see, ladies and gentlemen, we are at that crossroad, once again. Are we going to call forth another drone to be the puppet of the Oil Corporations or our we going to give President Obama and Vice-President Biden the support they need, in order to ween us from the gluttony for gas !! Don't make the same mistake again. Our earth can't afford 35 more years of environmental disasters. Alternative and renewable fuels, now !!!!!!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.

JS, your (1) is an interesting idea. To a certain extent, there already is such a thing in place, in the form of the gas tax. A small vehicle, getting better mileage, pays less gas tax. Put a big engine in that small vehicle (e.g., Subaru WRX), mileage gets worse, and the gas tax paid goes up. So the same effect might be had simply by adjusting te gas tax.

I agree that some accommodation should be made for people who actually work with their vehicles. But, that was the idea behind the differential mileage standards for cars and trucks in the original CAFE bill; the way that trucks were defined drove the transition from station wagons to SUVs. (The Chrysler PT Cruiser is a truck!) We should be more careful this time around.

Ugh that was painful to watch I think Barry is done. He is realizing what most of us already knew he is an incompetent boob and was in no way qualified for this job come on Fritz you got taken by a snake oil salesman just admit it, You know you want to.

We have technology now that would lower our dependence fossil fuels. And the most promising ones are never mentioned by this administration. Two examples are nuclear energy and small vertical axis wind turbines for the home. Something else that really ticks me off is why have the automobile manufacturers not brought over the high mileage low polluting diesel engines that they have been selling overseas for decades. I believe this was one of the worst speeches Obama has given so far. And to throw in his little jab at getting his Tax And Cap bill pass was an insult. He really laid out no specifications for anything long-term beyond the Gulf of Mexico.

This is well and good, but what we're not gonna do is pursue some Kerry/Lieberman type bill that guts the EPA and waters down the environmental legislation that passed some 40 years ago - Clean Air Act, etc. Cap and Trade will become the chip to pawn off like the Public Option was in the Health Care debacle. If we get serious about effecting actual change then let's do it. Otherwise, we're not entertaining continued subsidies for oil, coal and nuclear power while field dressing the EPA.

JS, the reason nobody has done anything in the last 40 years is because our economy runs on oil, and importing it is cheaper than any alternative. The only time this has historically become an issue is when gas prices spike. Once they stabilize, we forget about it and go back to our comfortable lives.

--------

There have been two significant factors that have changed this equation in the last decade, one mainly from the right and one mainly from the left. From the right's perspective, there is the rise of Islamic terrorism, and the lunacy of basically funding countries that hate us by buying their oil. From the left, there is global warming. Combine those two with high gas prices, and there is more political pressure currently than anytime I can remember to wean ourselves off foreign oil.

-------

Don Fitz, it is not as simple as a decision to just "get rid of fossil fuels". Our economy runs on fossil fuels. A transition needs to be made to cleaner energy, but the technology simply does not exist presently to replace fossil fuels without devastating the economy.

--------

JS, your idea re a federal tax focused on heavy users is already somewhat in place, as Dave said. I wouldn't mind seeing rich soccer mom paying more for driving her tank, but I don't know how you could focus the tax just on people like her, and not hammer industry. I like the general theme of your second idea better; promote and reward innovative ideas for cleaner energy. As far as government involvement, which is inevitable, I would favor incentives over punishment for what has been the status quo for decades.

Dummie Don
You get on your pulpit and rant and rave everyday about hatred of everything. Maybe its time you become part of the solution and quit being the problem.
Get rid of fossil fuels????? And what do you replace it with genius? Electricity? How do you think electricity is made oh dumb one? Lets burn more coal. Soon you will be ranting and raving about those "Giant Cola Companies" ripping us off. How about natural gas? I suppose you think those supplies are limitless. Gee, with natural gas we can make T. Boone Pickens rich than you could scream about him ripping us off. See Don, you are one of those people that protest just to protest, with no goal defined or in site.
It is unfortunate that people like you exist on this earth.

@DaveB
I think a flat gas tax would unduly hurt the poor. That's why I favor some kind of taxation of people who drive inefficient vehicles as status symbols or for fun.
.
@Herbie H
I agree with your geopolitical analysis 100%. Yes, now is a unique time in our national history, where domestic ideological trends are converging, if only in terms of energy usage.
.
The fundamental, radical change that is required to wean us off of petroleum requires some degree of personal sacrifice. I think that Americans across the socio/political/economic spectrum would be more receptive to a call for sacrifice now then they ever have been in the past.
.
The factor that is now missing from the equation is a leader who has the courage to take the political risk to say, hey America, your life has to be inconvenienced today in order to ensure our grandchildren's well being.

Hey. " Lips ", keep on posting, you just continue show your Bush-like qualities; silly, stupid and phony. Hey, don't forget to turn off your electric toothbrush, your electric & gas lawnmowers, your air-conditioned, sports stadiums, your SUVs, pick-up trucks and oh, yeah, your automobiles, just to go 5 blocks. Hey, whatever happened to our national, passenger railway system, our cities mass transit systems. You know, those systems and actions that will help us, park our autos and keep them parked. Finance mass production of solar panels, wind turbines, in stead of subsidizing the Oil Corps, or for that matter, any Corps. Are we that dumb that we can't get ourselves out of this national disease; our gluttony for gas, oil? I hope and pray we aren't, even though it looks like we are about to repeat history. Remember President Carter and his Department of Energy?
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.

Says the New Messiah: "We consume more than 20% of the world’s oil, but have less than 2% of the world’s oil reserves. And that’s part of the reason oil companies are drilling a mile beneath the surface of the ocean - because we’re running out of places to drill on land and in shallow water."

In fact, says John Hinderaker:

"This howler is a favorite canard of Democratic politicians. As is so often the case, they are relying on the public’s ignorance. Most people don’t realize that in the U.S., oil isn’t counted as part of our “reserves” unless it is legally available for drilling. Thus, ANWR, to take one of many examples, isn’t counted toward the total “reserves.” The U.S. government could cause our reserves to skyrocket overnight by opening new areas, on land and in shallow water, to drilling. But the U.S. is the only country in the world that has deliberately chosen not to develop its own energy resources. No one else is that dumb."

Donnie Boy
I thought Carter was your hero? Are you turning on your own kind now?

What we need to is make that this crisis does go to waste. This is just giving the gov't an opportunity to overreact and pass dumb legislation. If you want examples - see the Stuimulus, ObamaCare,and the 2009 Cap-n-Tax. All three were solutions in search of the appropriate problem. None of the three ever found it.

Just Sayin',

I think you forget what the goal was coming out of the 1973 energy crisis - it was energy independence and reducing our dependence on Middle east oil. It was not to eliminate our use of oi.

As for your idea on car weight, I think Dave B hits that by saying those vehicles pay more in gas tax. Also, I believe there are some states that charge for license plates in this manner.

Crooks,

Definitely more nukes. The left ran them out of buisness 30 years ago with their "China Syndrom" paranoia. They might just do the same to oil.

However, your windmill idea needs to pay for itself with out tax subsidies. That windmill reminds of an old ComEd commercial from the 80's with a father and son at a farm back in the 1930's and they see their windmill start to spin, so they drop their tools and run into the house to turn on the radio to catch some of the baseball game. Lo and behold, the wind stops, so does the windmill and the radio loses power. Wind power, no matter if it is on a house or at a wind farm, must be back-up by more reliable sources such as nukes, natgas, or coal.

Carter, like Truman, will enjoy high marks by presidential historians.

Solar panels be lookin' pretty good down in them Gulf states about now, I reckon.

And them folk don't agree that "the era of Big Government is over".

Big Government is looking better and better to them, no?

Libtard, you seem like a smart guy.

What's your solution?

Good point, JS, about the effect of a flat gas tax on the poor. That could be counteracted by creating a fully refundable income tax credit that would phase out with increasing income, and be gone entirely at some level. The IRS already does that with itemized deductions. Of course, that would require some people who don't now file returns to file them; remember the foofaraw about the $600 stimulus payments a while ago?

Your idea could be implemented by setting an annual tax on vehicles based upon EPA mileage and weight class. Some states already do a similar thing, but based on vehicle age and value; my native state, Maine, does, and when I moved to Chicago I kept my Maine vehicle registration as long as I could, because to register my (old) car was costing $8 a year, versus $30 in Illinois. The tax could be folded into the license plate renewal fee.

I wouldn't favor using horsepower as a criterion, because that is too easily gamed. For instance, there's a break in taxation of boats at 10 HP motor output; there are lots of very powerful 9.9 HP outboard motors out there! Also, according to the car mags, carmakers routinely misstate their horsepower, either up or down, depending upon the mood of the moment. So what power are you going to use? Mileage is better, particularly because what you're trying to do is encourage gas saving, anyway.

I would consult with the experts like Kevin Costner (Water World) and James Cameron (The Abyss) who could be smarter than the people of Hollywood? Barry has had this under control since day 1. Sigh....

Libtard, you seem like a smart guy.

What's your solution?

Posted by: ornery | June 16, 2010 8:08 PM

Hey, " Dum ", I like the way you live up to your name. Can you try to get even dummer !! We all need a good laugh today. So, give the " Lipturd " my regards and I hope you two, can quit fighting over who you really are !! No wonder the Republican-Libertarian-T.Baggers can only obstruct in our Senate, their braintrust, of course, an oxymoron, is ba-ba-bankrupt !!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.

Terry

We are going to install a small vertical axis wind turbine in the near future. With or without tax subsidies. Without the tax break the wind turbine would pay for itself in 6 to 7 years with the tax break 5 to 6 years average life before bearings need to be replaced is 20 years. We have already installed a tank less water heater and it paid for itself within three years. Now just thank if new homes had this technology from the start. In the state of Illinois if you install a wind turbine or solar panels on your home the utility company is required to install what is called a dual meter. So you do not have to have storage batteries for the excess power generated, it returns to the grid and you get credit for it. The wind turbine we are looking to install is 3 1/2 foot tall and 3 foot around. It starts to generate power at about 4 kn (little less then 6 mph) wind speed and at that level it can run a refrigerator and average home entertainment system. And the design being vertical means no dead birds because it apparent to be a solid object to birds. And a nice addition is you can have a graphic design put on. I wanted the Chicago Cubs logo but the wife shot that down. So we will go with the Stars & Stripes.

Crooks,

Thanks for the info. Your wife was correct on the logo.

Terry

That hurts!!! But I live by this saying "happy wife equals happy life".

Nobody can say I disagree with BO on everything.