Surprise! Politicians Threaten to Tax Big Oil, Big Oil Threatens to Raise Prices

The top 5 Big Oil companies pocketed a record $120 billion in 2007 alone, and they’re hissing and spitting at anyone who dares to come too close. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are pushing a windfall profits tax and House Democrats are threatening punitive measures if oil companies continue to amass evil overlord quantities of money at the expense of consumers.

CNN Money has it:

Oil industry: Hands off our cash. The industry, of course, doesn’t like the extra profit tax.

“If our profits are taxed, that means we’ll have less capital to invest in new production” and it could raise gas prices, John Hofmeister, president of Shell U.S., recently told CNNMoney.com.

Oil companies have been investing more in new production lately, but that argument is a little hard to swallow given the disparity between the huge amounts of money the big firms have been returning to shareholders versus the meager new oil discoveries.

Amy Myers Jaffe, a fellow in energy studies at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy just finished a two-year study looking at oil companies and how they spend their money.
“These companies are spending a very small amount of their operating cash flow on exploration,” she said. “They are spending the majority of their funds buying back stock.”

Big surprise: politicians threaten taxes, and the oil companies threaten to raise prices. These guys are hoarding money like – well, like people who see that new technology is being developed that might push them to the sidelines. How dare we talk about taking away some of their precious profits. Their precioussssssss……

Link [CNN Money]
Photo credit: Flickr user Refracted Moments

McCain, Clinton Both Back the Insanely Stupid Gas Tax Holiday Idea

How do you encourage people to stop using something – give them easier access to more of it? Idiotic as it is, that seems to be the answer as far as presidential hopefuls John McCain and Hillary Clinton are concerned. Their proposed ‘gas tax holiday’ has been slammed by economists, and anyone with half a brain should be able to see that it won’t work.

The proposal involves cutting the 18.4 cents per gallon federal gas tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day, giving Americans a ‘summer break’ from paying the tax, which is put to use building roads and bridges nationwide. Obama is the only one in this three-ring circus that thinks it’s a bad idea, and Clinton in turn has accused him of ‘being out of touch with ordinary Americans’. Yeah, because in this country of brilliant thinkers, the thought process stops after they hear the words ‘tax cut’.

From MSNBC.com:

Economists said that since refineries cannot increase their supply of gasoline in the space of a few summer months, lower prices will just boost demand and the benefits will flow to oil companies, not consumers.

“You are just going to push up the price of gas by almost the size of the tax cut,” said Eric Toder, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center in Washington.

Obama criticized the plan as pure politics and said the only way to lower the price of gas is to use less oil.

“This isn’t an idea designed to get you through the summer, it’s an idea designed to get them through an election.”

Clinton promised to make up for the tax break by imposing a windfall profits tax on oil companies, but hasn’t seemed to consider the fact that she’s essentially offering bags of heroin to a group of junkies who just started considering rehab.

Continuing the cheap gas trend in America won’t do anything to reduce our dependence on oil. It won’t encourage people to cut back. It won’t bolster further investment into alternative energy sources. It’s a dirty bandage on a weeping gangrenous wound.

People might not even get any relief from the tax cut, according to some economists who predict that refineries will likely keep some of it for themselves rather than passing it on to consumers.

At least we can console ourselves with the fact that one of the three main presidential contenders sees the truth to this. It’s not much, but it’s something.

Link [MSNBC]

Photo credit: Flickr user ~~zorro~~

Al Gore may be Smuggled Back into White House in Someone’s Luggage

8 years later, and many of us have spent this entire time daydreaming ‘what ifs’ about Al Gore’s stolen presidency. It seems that the current presidential candidates are very aware of this, and they’re running with it: everyone’s eager to get Al Gore in on the action.

Democratic White House hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama speak often about green jobs, emissions cuts and renewable energy. But they have more than global warming on their minds when they talk of environmental policy.

The long-term goal may be saving the planet, but the short-term one is winning the backing of former Vice President Al Gore.

So the dueling candidates praise Gore during campaign stops, offer up the prospect of roles for him in future administrations, and - most of all - they stay in touch.

Ok, I have another confession: in 2000, I was one of those Floridians who voted for Nader. You know, the ones who inadvertently helped hand the presidency to Bush on a silver platter. Sigh, the days of being an idealistic college student. Now, I’m almost wishing someone would stage a coup and sneak Al back into the White House, whatever it takes.

Link [MSNBC]

Photo: Wikimedia Commons & Flickr user abbynormy

EarthFirst Blog Week in Review March 24-28

Pub note: We’re a little late posting this, April Fools Day got us all spun around, what can we say.

Last week was just another freak show around here at Earth First. We came down with our own little bout of March Madness and covered all kinds of crazy shit from an insanely talented elephant to veggie-friendly strippers to Britney Spears actually doing something productive and positive! Mr. Cranky Green bitched and moaned about the pointlessness of EarthHour and then stuck it to those dirty, silly hippies by ratcheting up his energy use that hour. We bet he’s pumped for Energy Wasting Day. Have a great week and remember that mother earth comes first. And she likes being on top.

• Fabulosity - Kimora Lee’s Adventures in Doggie Diamonds (Literally)
• Hillary Clinton Does the Waffle Dance Around Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining
• Fake Steve Jobs is Mad He Wasn’t Invited to Join Richard Branson’s Secret Planet Saving Club
• Britney Spears Does a Turn for The Environment: Auctioning Waredrobe for the Natural Resources Defense Council
• Creationist Science Tours: Helping Build Tomorrow’s Crack Ass Backwards Fundamentalist Christians
• How Now See Through Cow- Front Row View on a Bovine Stomach
• Q & A with Mr. Cranky Green: Snowy Winter = Global Warming Called Off? and Adventures in Wind Credits
• Is Helix A Green(er) Film Production? Will Be Shot In One Take
• Video Shows Growth of Wal-Mart Matches Outbreak of Infectious Disease
• The Pedal Pub Allows You to Burn Your Calories and Brain Cells At The Same Time
• Developing Nations Struggle to Cope with Rising Food Prices, Once Again The Poor Get Screwed
• Head For the Hills, Stock Up The Larder, And Git Yer Guns Loaded, Another Huge Antarctic Ice Shelf has Collapsed
• For The Millionare Who Has Everything: The CarLoft Means Never Having To Say Hello (To Your Neighbors)
• 
• Watch Your Favorite Green Eps of South Park Online- Trey and Matt Set SP Free
• Bash Back at Bulk Mail: Send a Brick Back to Bulk Mailers on Their Dime- Legally!
• Carrotmob: Harnessing People’s Dollars To Drive Businesses Green
• Payback is a Bitch: Treekilling Aussies Get Punked with Huge View-Blocking Box
• Oh The Humanity! Economic Downturn Impacting Wives of Rich Asshole Bankers
• Tinkering with Packaging: McDonalds Looking For Ways to Suck Less
• Green Vaporwear, Hucksterism, and Electric Cars- Wired Magazine Unloads on Zap!
• Excuse Me, I’m Going to Need This to Run My Car, Or The Insanity of Food Based Biofuels
• This Day in Green History: March 27th, 1513- Ponce de Leon Discovers Florida
• The Vegan Stripper: Casa Diablo Gentlemens Club Combines Hot Naked Ladies with Animal Free Eatin’
• Do Your Part- April 1st is Energy Wasting Day
• Vanity Fair’s Greenwashed Cover: There’s Nothing Green About Madonna
• Great Jebus’s Ghost! Video- An Elepant Freakin’ Painting a Picture of Herself
• President Bush To Throw First Pitch At New Green Stadium, Up is Down, War is Peace
• Catch Us After You Plug Back In: EarthFirst is Liveblogging Earth Hour Tonight 8-9pm
• March 29th- Live Blogging Earth Hour: Because Someone Had To
• Dastardly Seal Hunters Die After Boat Flips in Rough Water- No Miracle Seals Come to the Rescue
• As The Boos Rained Down: President Bush Throws Out First Pitch in Green(er) Stadium

Hillary Clinton Does the Waffle Dance Around Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining

The word “jobs” is a magic talisman for politicians. When they want to push a dubious policy, they promise that “jobs” will come of it, and rarely does anyone note that some jobs are not worth having.

West Virginia is having a primary soon, and Hillary Clinton, campaigning there, had the following to say about mountaintop removal mining, a kind of Extreme Coal Mining that does what it says–it removes the mountain to get at the coal. She seems to be okay with it:

I am concerned about it for all the reasons people state, but I think it’s a difficult question because of the conflict between the economic and environmental trade-off that you have here.

I’m not an expert. I don’t know enough to have an independent opinion, but I sure would like people who could be objective, understanding both the economic necessities and environmental damage, to come up with some approach that would enable us to retrieve the coal but would enable us to do it in a way that wouldn’t damage the living standards and the other important qualities associated with people living both under the mountaintop and people who are along the streams.

You know, maybe there is a way to recover those mountaintops once they have been stripped of the coal. You know, I think we’ve got to look at this from a practical perspective.

Meh. Grist does a good job taking this apart. Strip mining for coal in Appalachia was never even good enough to be called a devil’s bargain; the devil got everything, and still does. It’s comparable to burning down your house in order to get a “job” hauling the remains to a dumpster. At the end, Hillary grasps for a tedious old dodge: once the mining is done, we’ll restore the landscape. In my experience of such restoration, the only thing left is rubble and toxins, and the only thing you can grow is noxious weeds.

Link [Gristmill]

Presidential Candidates (Videos) Spar Off: One Clear Winner

Take a few minutes and watch these three videos. Then tell me who the next President of the United States will be. It’s no contest.