Who's to blame for high gas prices? - 2 Article links

Figures, they miss the real cause of the problem..

No, the real problem is Washington's idiocy about producing and refining our own oil, and over regulating gasoline production. How many people realize that about 30 cents of the recent price rise is ENTIRELY due to the EPA screwing around with the gas formula again?

If the government really wanted to deal with this problem they would come up with a set of simple and sane regulations dealing with gasoline (like getting rid of the boutique fuels), lighten up on restrictions on building new refineries, and open up OUR oil fields for exploration and exploitation.

But they won't, they'd rather play politics than deal with problems.

Jeff DeWitt

D.J. wrote:

CEO's salary's are obscene for sure, however the real cure for gas prices and ending terrorism is outlined in the book, "The world is flat". An excellent read on globalization.Amazon.com: The World Is Flat [Updated and Expanded] : A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century: Books: Thomas L. Friedman

Basically the President would announce a new program similar to the space program. This time it would be to develop alternatives to oil/gas dependence.

Imagine living in the Mid East and no one wanted your oil? No money pouring in? Yikes.

You mean something like this?

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 All taxes on the production of domestic oil and natural gas are to be repealed, and all expenses used for that production are to be tax free.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