First off, this cannot even be remotely considered an energy policy! Now, lets not forget we still need to pay for that oil in the first place. How are we gonna do that? Wait a minute! We could always borrow money from China. (heck we're already doing it to fund our nation) So we borrow money from China, ship it to the middle east, get some black gold and take a cut of it for ourselves as it gets pumped into your shiny new car. This is the gas policy the way it is now, we maximize our demand, minimize our supply and buy from the very people who want to kill us. True American ingenuity!
Lets look at the bigger picture for a minute. This gas tax funds things in our nation and without that handy 18.4 cents a gallon, where are we going to get the money to make up the loss? My main pant-suit clad woman, Hillary Clinton, suggests that we tax big oil companies. Even if we did somehow tax these big oil companies that is a horrible waste. We waste tax dollars on gassing up Hummers rather than spending it on alternative energy research.
Now both Clinton and McCain claim to be environmentally friendly, but I can't think of a worse plan than this garbage. They want to lower the cost of driving during the summer when gas is at the highest demand. This plan essentially reduces the price of producing greenhouse gasses and it's even worse economically. By reducing the price of gas it encourages more driving which increases the demand for gasoline which inevitably pushes the price back up. The American people gain nothing while OPEC and the oil companies collect the extra money.
Even with all the environmental problems this plan will probably not make a difference to anyone. This remarkable 18.4 cents is just pocket change and most economists agree that it won't do anything to help people in the short term. This savings is also banking on the fact that gas stations will cut their prices after the Tax Holiday goes into effect. I'm sure that will happen because we all know how much oil companies love not making extra money. More likely than not gas stations will just continue charging what they are charging.
This is not only about McCain and Clinton's ludicrous Gas Tax Holiday, it's about our energy policy as a whole. Now, as I understand it we usually try to make policies based around things we want to happen. One instance would be raising taxes on things we want to discourage while lowering taxes on things we want to encourage. It seems we are doing just the opposite by lowering the gas tax and providing essentially no support for alternative energy. Now I do realize that 99% of people have gas powered vehicles and that isn't going to change by this summer, but I'm thinking long term here. As of now congress has failed to renew the solar energy and wind energy tax credits which are set to expire in December. Ironically, gas and oil have kept all their tax credits. Way to go congress! Haven't our government officials seen An Inconvenient Truth or Planet In Peril? (I know sometimes it can be as fun as listening to Bea Arthur lecture about Mongol traditions for 3 hours, but c'mon congress this is serious business!!) We are raping our planet while old men squabble over pennies in Washington. I must give credit to the Democrats though, they wanted to fund solar and wind projects by taking away incentives from oil and gas. But as expected, our fearless leader George W. Bush whipped out his veto stamp. (as he usually does with plans that make sense)
Our energy policy (or lack of one) is not only hurting our environment it is also hurting our domestic economy. Alternative energy companies provide jobs to hundreds of thousands of Americans. If we let their tax credits expire and do nothing to help them we are likely to see jobs lost and sent overseas. America used to be the alternative energy leader, now almost every other industrialized nation has far more ambitious energy programs than us causing companies to send jobs overseas.
While I may have gone on a bit of a tangent from my original focus this is all truly interconnected. The pointless and irresponsible Gas Tax Holiday just amplifies the energy problem in our nation. Our leaders need a wake up call that if we don't take serious action now, we will forever pay for it. We are on the verge of a huge crisis not only with global warming, but also with our dwindling oil reserves and falling dollar. I only hope that one of our leaders in Washington has a transcendent moment and starts a chain reaction of cutting through the standard political B.S. in order to get things done.
On a final and somewhat unrelated note I want to address a minor point brought up in a previous post "Being Politically Aware Never Looked So Cool." I completely agree that the media in the country is horrific. Almost all important major issues are overlooked in favor of stupid and trivial pieces. While I do blame the media, they are not the sole receiver of my wrath. The American people are in part to blame. We look at TV and think there is sort of a conspiracy to dumb us all down, but that could not be farther from the truth. The TV networks are in business to give people exactly what they want, which is a far more depressing reality. A lot of people in America probably do care more about Miley Cyrus' shoulder than global warming and the oil crisis and that is truly sad. I could go on and rant about the media and the state of our society for another 4 pages, but I'll leave that for another day. I just wanted to add my schooner to the canal of ideas. (what a horrible metaphor)
As Confucius once said, "Mind Your Gas"
-Dean
Despite the fact that the author clearly has a bias against Bea Arthur and could be even seen as a pusher of age-ism --- there is a point here. Since being thrust into one of the worst military blunders of recent history, many armchair politicians have suggested that the funding for said Iraq war should come from the oil beneath its savaged land. Yes the world refs would cry foul -- but at this point, can Team America's reputation get any worse? Sandlot bullies are we! Let's stop pretending to be the nice guy and embrace our inner-Mark McGuire by popping roids, corking our bats and capping them with enough pine tar to knock out all the other players. Teddy R. once said carry a big stick -- and it's high time we get some economic enzyte for our big stick and start shagging flys. Casey has got to get to bat! Otherwise we'll continue to look like the '07 Yanks -- big payroll, no championship. No championship, no trip to Disney. No trip to the happiest place on Earth in Florida - no reason to watch Golden Girls. No Golden Girls, no Bea Arthur. And that, my friends, would again be age-ist!
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