Energy Independence - a not so modest proposal <OT>

A while back I cooked up this bright idea, and our recent hydrogen thread reminded me of it. Any thoughts?

There is a lot of talk among the political types about energy independence, while that is mostly a pipe dream it is insane for a country as great as the United States to let itself up in a position where regimes as warped as Iran's and Venezuela can put our economy at serious risk. While we can't be totally energy independent any time soon we can get ourselves in a position where a major disruption in supplies from other parts of the world won't seriously damage our economy. Toward that end I offer my own energy plan, it offers incentives to reduce our imports, increase domestic production, and provide abundant supplies of clean, inexpensive electricity.

  1. All taxes on the production of domestic oil and natural gas are to be repealed, and all expenses used for that production are to be tax free.

  1. ANWAR and all other government controlled sites are to be opened for exploration and development, including off shore. All current environmental protections are to be followed.

  2. The EPA's regulations on fuel and oil production will be scrutinized by a panel made up of scientists and engineers from the oil, auto and environmental industries to simplify the rules to a level an average American can understand. The use of boutique fuels will be eliminated.

  1. Any lawsuits brought about as a result of this program will be dealt with on a loser pays basis; if the lawsuit is deemed to be frivolous the loser will be required to pay twice the expenses incurred by the defendant.

  2. Starting one year from the enacting of this program all imported oil will be subject to a tax of the difference in price between the price of the imported oil and the price of equivalent domestically produced oil plus 10%.

  1. Proceeds from the import oil tax will be used to create a fusion fund. That fund will be built up for a period not to exceed 5 years, the proceeds of that fund will be awarded in total to the whomever devises a practical, commercially viable fusion reactor.

  2. After the 5 year period is past the fund will build for the next five years and be used to reward anyone who can devise a practicable method of making an economical, clean, non-petroleum based transportation fuel.

  1. After 10 years the tax on imported petroleum products will expire.

After this program has run it's course we will have the ability to produce clean, virtually unlimited supplies of electricity, we will be well on our way toward getting off the "oil teat", and we will have developed our supplies of oil and gas enough so that any disruption of our foreign sources will be an inconvenience and not a disaster. We will also have developed our resources in the careful way we can do it now, instead of in the panicked way we would do it after a serious long term disruption from one of our major suppliers.

After all is said and done America will be cleaner, richer, more secure, and we could very well be energy independent!

Reply to
Jeff DeWitt
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Let's keep the taxes and put them into running your program. Seed money will be needed to get the inventive guys going, otherwise it will be the same bunch as got us where we are now.

Start ANWAR on the road to production, but keep output low, with the ability to ramp up quickly. (Restart the CAFE to get the usage (Waste) down. Decrease registration fees so that the economy car costs little and the SUV owners can get one for running "after the six-pack" trips.

(Probably unworkable, but I like the concept)

Hell, let's start with the French nukes right now! They have assembly- line output of great reactors whereas GE and the others will milk the fund for all they can.

Rape-seed bio-diesel coming soon in Europe. Clean diesels soon. (Former Navy engineman who loves them.)

Looks good -- Karl

Reply to
midlant

Interesting idea(s)...

Knowing the state of the bureaucracy as it exists today... Getting us off the oil teat is not in the power brokers hands... Your plan says the tax will end in ten years. Have you EVER seen a tax end? But your idea has merit. There will be a whole new crop of young teats for the taxed to suckle on just to get their daily government sustenance. Jeff (The doubting Thomas of the OT NG) Rice

Reply to
Deepnhock

Cynicism is well justified. Most of the proposals make too much sense to ever be implemented, and have no incentives for big lobbi$t$ to get behind. They are kind of like proposing to deport all illegals, end racial quotas and voting rights act, or repeal the Fed Reserve Act. Great ideas that will never happen short of a total revolution.

Reply to
Barry
  1. All taxes on the production of domestic oil and natural gas are to be repealed,
  2. ANWAR and all other government controlled sites are to be opened,
  3. The EPA's regulations on fuel and oil production will be scrutinized,
  4. Any lawsuits on a loser pays basis,
  5. imported oil will be subject to a tax,
  6. Proceeds from the import oil tax will be used to create a fusion fund.
  7. The fund will reward anyone who can made non-petroleum based transportation fuel.
  8. After 10 years the tax will expire.

This is just what I expected when "Texas oil men" "took over the government." I've just been waiting and waiting... I've made up my mind. I blame Halliburton.

Now that there is cynical I don't care WHO you are...

Reply to
comatus

You missed one thing that would also help; Government not bowing to the auto makers and big oil and actually mandating better fuel milage from all vehicles made and or imported in North America. No more "fleet average" but an actual milage PER VEHICLE. Something like 40-50 MPG for cars and 35-45 MPG for trucks or better might help too.

Reply to
Dale J.

You're thinking is dangerous and I calling the Department of Homeland Security, FBI, Secret Service, Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and maybe even the Coast Guard to find your quivering rebellious ass and toss you into the darkest dank cell in 'Gitmo!

Other than that, it has merit...

JT

Jeff DeWitt wrote:

Reply to
Grumpy AuContraire

What a pipe dream... You want to repeal all taxes, and completely change our legal system (to the British tort system)... And you blame Haliburton for it all? You'd better check your exhaust system for leaks because carbon monoxide has affected your brain .. Jeff ( I have a dream too...) Rice

Reply to
Deepnhock

The chances of *that* happening are about...... um, er, ... ZERO!

Wrong (money) path I'm afraid.

Regarding mileage... Honda made cars in the early/mid 1980's that regularly got 40-55 mpg and were relatively simple as compared with today's plastic.

But, wtf do I know...

JT

('83 Honda Civic FE averages 42 mpg mixed driving)

...and it has a vacuum leake somewhere under the carb..

Dale J. wrote:

Reply to
Grumpy AuContraire

Of interest is your comment about government madated to improve fuel economy. Just because you mandate something doesn't mean it will fly, or the buying public will buy it. Under the guise of cleaning up the air, the government has mandated truck manufacturers to clean up the diesel emissions. This has added beaucoup bucks to the cost of trucks, and the technology has screwed up the engines something awful. Every deadline date for an emission level has been met with massive pre-orders of trucks to beat the deadline, with a massive drop off of orders right after the orders have all been filled. The government's tinkering with the trucking industry has been doing little to solve the problem, as the number of trucks has increased anyways. Now... Imaging a drop dead date deadline tossed out to the auto industry to make a 75mpg car. All the mfr's will comply, and the new cars will cost $125,000 and nobody will buy them, not even the Greenies. Some sort of balance is needed, but it should be a reward system that rewards the consumer, not some stockholders quarterly dividend. Not saying a dividend is a bad thing, but to place quarterly earnings above all else is short sighted (lump exec bonus'es in there too)... Give me tax credits for doing the right thing (buying additional insulation, buying a high mileage car...investing in conservation)... Don't penalize me through legislation mandating profits for someone else at my expense... Jeff ( just one guys opinion..) Rice

Reply to
Deepnhock

Thanks!

Jeff DeWitt (not hard to find!)

Reply to
Jeff DeWitt

But taking off the taxes on domisticly produed oil and natural gas is to encourage it's production. If it still costs less to get oil from Venezuela that's where it will come from. Increasing domsitic production not only makes us more secure it also helps the domistic oil industry and all the jobs that go with it.

CAFE standards never went away, they just havn't been increased in years. Plus they don't help. CAFE standards are a classic government "soloution" to a problem, they increase our costs, make the politicans feel good and at the end of the day do little or nothing to help the problem.

That's fine with me, I'm a fan of nuclear power. However the goal of the fusion fund is to reward whoever can come up with a viable FUSION reactor, and no one can milk it because there is no payout until the reactor is produced.

That's good (really!), but what I'm really thinking of is a replacement for gasoline, after all we have a HUGE fleet of gasoline powered cars (including our Studebakers of course) that can't burn rape seed oil.

Reply to
Jeff DeWitt

Thanks,

Being anti big government I've tried to keep this plan as much out of the governments hands as possible, that's why the "Fusion fund" goes to whoever can develop a commercial fusion reactor, not to some bottomless government research project. It doesn't fund research, but offers a HUGE payout to whoever is successful.

Jeff DeWitt

Reply to
Jeff DeWitt

Actually I see incentives for big oil (opening up our oil fields), for companies like GE, some government agencies (NASA perhaps) and universities in the "Fusion Fund", and for the environmentalists, a clean replacement for gasoline and clean fusion power to eventually replace our coal and old style nuclear power plants.

Jeff DeWitt

Reply to
Jeff DeWitt

I didn't miss it, I dismissed it. In what is supposed to be a free society people should be free to drive whatever they want and can afford, it's really none of the governments business.

Jeff DeWitt

Reply to
Jeff DeWitt

Yes they did, but that car wouldn't meet todays emission and safety laws... the automakers didn't add all those electronics just because they thought it would be cool!

Jeff DeWitt

Reply to
Jeff DeWitt

"Deepnhock" wrote

...hey, we got that tort system from the British, and if we're done with it, we should give it back.

...well, that's the point, you see, this is the NG where we blame Halliburton. On this one, I'm blaming them for not acting like Halliburton.

...Jeez, it's DeWitt's idea. I'm just supplying the conspiracy. And it's not monoxide, but the molecular structure's real similar

Reply to
comatus

Anwar is estimated to have about 6 months worth of oil. Boutique fuels reduce pollution. Not all states have the same weather and not all states have the same pollution problems.

Reply to
Alex Magdaleno

LOL.... Good one... I kind of like that idea..

"Blame the bastards because they didn't act like the bastards they really are..."

I am gonna have to remember that one for my hall of fame comeback lines .

Oh, and for the tort system.. We should do just that... Loser pays court cost's... Jeff (And make the lawyers wear those white puffy wigs in court!) Rice Jeff

Reply to
Deepnhock

They make high mileage vehicles, they just won't sell them in North America (at least Canada smoothed the path for the Smart, but Smarts aren't the real answer) Lower cost HDI (high pressure direct injection, not TDI turbo) diesels are what we need, that run on unsulphered diesel, whether its 100% dino or better yet, some percentage of bio from whatever source. Running real bio-diesel, (not the filtered french fry stuff!) oil from canola/corn/grass/whatever that has been catylysed into real diesel fuel.

If you run 15%+ real biodiesel to 85%- dinodiesel, then the properties of bio tend to make up for the lack of sulphur for interior engine lubricity and other issues, like the leaking problems with sulphur-era injector pumps. Think of the problems of adding ethanol in gas engines not designed for it...except in diesel its in reverse, the more bio the better.

The last Federal budget in Canada did something useful to change people's buying habits. Toyota Prius hybrid or equivaltent like a Jetta TDI manual = $2,000 rebate on federal tax Toyota Yaris manual = $1000 rebate Most vehicles tax neutral Something like a thirsty gas V8 pickup = $1,000 extra tax Something like a Bentley or Ferrari or other gas guzzler = $2,000 extra tax

Honda is bitching here because none of their vehicles other than the hybrids--not the Civic, not the Fit, get high enough mileage to qualify for rebates. Their choice to sell cars with extra power over mileage. Yet, they stopped selling the Insight hybrid here, and they won't sell any diesels here either. Tough.

Something like a 4x4 diesel-electric pickup that can pull a stump out, tow useful stuff, but doesn't go any much faster than say 75 mph on level ground, and gets 45 mpg at say 60 mph--now that's what we need Do we really have to get 0-60 in less than 8 seconds?

Jim Bartley on PEI

Reply to
George

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