Gas prices, taxes, and fiscal conservatism: a 5-point plan.
I seldom step out of the local focus of this blog, but the recent discussions about the gas prices have spurred me to offer some thoughts.
First, I recognize that there is much of supply and demand which affects our current gas prices. Supply is diminished - as well as the perception of supply being diminished - because of things going on in New Orleans, Nigeria, Iraq, Iran and other areas in the news. And as China and India ramp up their industrialization and simple population growth kicks in, demand is rising significantly. Those factors result in simple market forces leading to the rise of gas prices.
Of course, there is significant blame for the Administration in fomenting some of these circumstances (especially in Iraq, poor planning in New Orleans, saber rattling at Iran and Venezuela, etc.). So the problem is aggravated by poor leadership, too. And the giveaways suggested by the Republican congress - so hastily dropped when they realized the country, and especially the oil companies, didn't approve - are worse than bad solutions.
Into this vacuum, there are a number of suggestions for how to address the looming crisis. Drilling in ANWR is an oil industry's dream, but it's a drop in the bucket, at the expense of ruining a beautiful, pristine national treasure. The Democrats have been criticized for not having a coherent plan. Well, I would like to propose - for their consideration - a coherent, five-point plan of initiatives that addresses the oil problem and a few others:
1. Get serious about Conservation. Nixon and Carter had the right idea when they urged us to drive 55, carpool, wear a sweater and so forth. People who are common-sensible and frugal already understand the wisdom of this - our country needs to adopt it as a broader ethos. A good start: increase the CAFE standards by 5 mpg. They haven't been raised in 20 years and the average car mileage already exceeds the standard, so raise them enough to encourage better development from the auto industry. It has been estimated that if the average mpg of automobiles in the US were raised by only 2 mpg, we'd save as much petroleum as is expected to be found in all of ANWR. Conservation is the most direct and sensible contributing factor to reducing our dependence on foreign oil.
2. Get serious about alternate fuels. Hydrogen and hybrids and solar cells aren't the magic bullet to solve our energy woes - each has its drawbacks and cost-of-manufacture - but we could be doing much, much more to encourage R&D in those areas than we are currently. Other countries have far better programs than we do (Japan's emphasis on solar, for example). This is also a way to incentivize high-tech job creation in our country.
3. Get serious about being fiscally responsible and wage a "War on Waste" - including budgetary waste. In an era of gross mismanagement, there's billions of dollars going missing and being wasted in the Defense budget, alone, by the Pentagon's own admission. Getting serious about rooting it out is the least we need to do. But the money that's being wasted currently could go to help reduce our deficit as well as pay for R&D on alternate fuels, safety-net health care, etc. The OMB should have Special Inspectors General tasked with the authority to root out government waste, and we should have elected officials who are serious about eliminating it. This goes for pork-barrel earmarks, too.
4. Scale back federal taxes on gasoline and pay for it with revenue created by scaling back on big federal subsidies to Big Oil companies who are making record profits. Yes, CUT taxes and ELIMINATE federal subsidies to an industry that obviously doesn't need them. Two ideas that fiscal conservatives ought to be able to get behind.
5. Eliminate the Neocon and US corporatist destabilization of oil-producing regions. Dwight D. Eisenhower, a man who was no stranger to war and the sometimes need for foreign intervention, spoke eloquently on the way the military-industrial complex would be driving our foreign policy to the detriment of our country. I believe we're seeing now just how wise and prophetic that man was. We're all paying the price, today, for not following Ike's advice and remaining vigilant. We need to elect people to office who are not bought into the PNAC plan to project the American Empire into every sensitive part of the globe, even when their doing so means causing massive death, destruction and political and economic destabilization to the world.
That's my plan. Comments and criticisms welcome, of course!
First, I recognize that there is much of supply and demand which affects our current gas prices. Supply is diminished - as well as the perception of supply being diminished - because of things going on in New Orleans, Nigeria, Iraq, Iran and other areas in the news. And as China and India ramp up their industrialization and simple population growth kicks in, demand is rising significantly. Those factors result in simple market forces leading to the rise of gas prices.
Of course, there is significant blame for the Administration in fomenting some of these circumstances (especially in Iraq, poor planning in New Orleans, saber rattling at Iran and Venezuela, etc.). So the problem is aggravated by poor leadership, too. And the giveaways suggested by the Republican congress - so hastily dropped when they realized the country, and especially the oil companies, didn't approve - are worse than bad solutions.
Into this vacuum, there are a number of suggestions for how to address the looming crisis. Drilling in ANWR is an oil industry's dream, but it's a drop in the bucket, at the expense of ruining a beautiful, pristine national treasure. The Democrats have been criticized for not having a coherent plan. Well, I would like to propose - for their consideration - a coherent, five-point plan of initiatives that addresses the oil problem and a few others:
1. Get serious about Conservation. Nixon and Carter had the right idea when they urged us to drive 55, carpool, wear a sweater and so forth. People who are common-sensible and frugal already understand the wisdom of this - our country needs to adopt it as a broader ethos. A good start: increase the CAFE standards by 5 mpg. They haven't been raised in 20 years and the average car mileage already exceeds the standard, so raise them enough to encourage better development from the auto industry. It has been estimated that if the average mpg of automobiles in the US were raised by only 2 mpg, we'd save as much petroleum as is expected to be found in all of ANWR. Conservation is the most direct and sensible contributing factor to reducing our dependence on foreign oil.
2. Get serious about alternate fuels. Hydrogen and hybrids and solar cells aren't the magic bullet to solve our energy woes - each has its drawbacks and cost-of-manufacture - but we could be doing much, much more to encourage R&D in those areas than we are currently. Other countries have far better programs than we do (Japan's emphasis on solar, for example). This is also a way to incentivize high-tech job creation in our country.
3. Get serious about being fiscally responsible and wage a "War on Waste" - including budgetary waste. In an era of gross mismanagement, there's billions of dollars going missing and being wasted in the Defense budget, alone, by the Pentagon's own admission. Getting serious about rooting it out is the least we need to do. But the money that's being wasted currently could go to help reduce our deficit as well as pay for R&D on alternate fuels, safety-net health care, etc. The OMB should have Special Inspectors General tasked with the authority to root out government waste, and we should have elected officials who are serious about eliminating it. This goes for pork-barrel earmarks, too.
4. Scale back federal taxes on gasoline and pay for it with revenue created by scaling back on big federal subsidies to Big Oil companies who are making record profits. Yes, CUT taxes and ELIMINATE federal subsidies to an industry that obviously doesn't need them. Two ideas that fiscal conservatives ought to be able to get behind.
5. Eliminate the Neocon and US corporatist destabilization of oil-producing regions. Dwight D. Eisenhower, a man who was no stranger to war and the sometimes need for foreign intervention, spoke eloquently on the way the military-industrial complex would be driving our foreign policy to the detriment of our country. I believe we're seeing now just how wise and prophetic that man was. We're all paying the price, today, for not following Ike's advice and remaining vigilant. We need to elect people to office who are not bought into the PNAC plan to project the American Empire into every sensitive part of the globe, even when their doing so means causing massive death, destruction and political and economic destabilization to the world.
That's my plan. Comments and criticisms welcome, of course!
posted by Geo at 5:49 AM
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