Opinions
WASHINGTON ? A proposal to hit oil companies with $29 billion in new taxes advanced in the Senate on Tuesday, targeting the money to energy conservation, wind turbines, electric hybrid cars and clean coal technology.
The massive tax package, double what Democrats had discussed as recently as last week, is "designed to promote clean and sustainable energy," said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Finance Committee that approved the measure by a 15-5 vote.
It is expected later this week to be added to energy legislation being considered by the full Senate.
Senators acknowledged that oil companies would howl over the new taxes.
But Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the Finance Committee's top Republican, said, "We have entered a new era in energy markets ... (that) requires a dramatic shift away from tax incentives for oil and gas production" and toward support for other energy sources and efficiency.
This reminds me of the situation in the late 70's. The government had created an artificial energy shortage. To combat it they created a plethora of programs that did help. It took Ronald Reagan almost no time at all to fix the problem by getting the government out of the way of those people that are producing what you and I need.
Instead the Senate is considering imposing a massive new tax which will be added to the fuel we buy AND the products we buy. And they'll be giving that money out in politically expedient but economically wasteful ways just like Jimmy Carter did.
This is crazy. We have people that are professionals in the energy field and they are being shut out of the debate. Instead the Senate's listening to the tinkerbells who probably can't handle the self-service pumps at the gas station.
Gas has doubled in price in recent years largely because the Congress won't allow us to develop our own sources of energy. Heck if we were pumping oil out of ANWR today (which we would have except for Clinton's veto, our economy would have something like $25 Billion dollars more in our economy rather than shipping it to our enemies. In the last year or two the Senate rejected developing ANWR thanks to Democrat senators like Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan.
The last price spike in gasoline was due to the artificial rules on refining gasoline and the fact that environmental regulations have kept us from building the refineries we need to deal with the increased demand and increased population. That's not a failing of the market it is a failing of the government!
The last thing we need is higher gas prices and wasting the money on stupid programs. The price of oil is rising due to increasing worldwide prosperity and the fact that much of the world's oil is in the hands of nutjobs. That's reason enough for the market to develop viable replacements for petroleum.
This is a direct assault on our standard of living. It absolutely offends me that the Congress is going to take money out of my families budget to waste like this. The Heritage Foundation is predicting that the price of gas will double in ten years from this legislation. (That's in addition to any worldwide market conditions.)
The folks in Congress do not have the expertise to control the energy market and they surely don't have the moral authority to limit my freedom.
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