Posted on 09/01/2007 4:11:59 PM PDT by abc123alphabetagamma
The Baltimore pundit H.L. Mencken once opined that for every complex problem, there's a solution that is simple, neat and wrong. We have no better example of that dictum than the energy bills passed this summer by the U.S. House and Senate that will go to conference committee when Congress reconvenes in September.
Our legislators want to raise taxes on oil and gas companies; repeal most of the incentives enacted in 2005 to encourage offshore exploration and production; require utilities to generate at least 15 percent of their power from renewables; and subsidize ethanol and other biofuels like crazy. In addition, the Senate bill would impose stricter efficiency standards for appliances and lighting while mandating a 40 percent increase in automobile and light-truck fuel economy.
Congress is behaving just as it did in 1973 after the OPEC embargo. The same caterwauling about alleged obscene profits and price gouging that is being sounded today was reverberating 34 years ago, and Congress' response was to pass a series of laws that did little or nothing to enhance the nation's energy supply
(Excerpt) Read more at star-telegram.com ...
How could the Congress screw up our energy situation any more than they already have?? The energy policy of this country is a laughing-stock disaster. A government working overtime to discourage energy generation and production. Taxation, restrictions, regulations....TOTAL ENERGY INSANITY. Between the greenies, the pandering pols, and the ethanol mob, we have a real mess on our hands...
The Dims are leading us down the road to energy destruction. It may take 5 to 10 years, but it is coming. Get ready for energy supply disruptions and high prices. The cost of producing goods and services in this country will become more expensive making our economy much less competitive.
The brain of the typical Dim has two short circuits. First, Dims want to be captains of industry without investing their own capital. Their solution is partial nationalization of the energy industry by directing investments in favored technologies and blocking investments in unfavored technologies. Dims think that the solution to energy problems is central planning of the economy.
Second, Dims do not understand the relevancy of fixed costs. Fixed costs have tremendous meaning in capital budgeting and investment decisions. To the typical Dim, a high fixed cost is just something to be subsidized away. Payback periods and return on investments have no place in the mind of the typical Dim. The typical Dim can think no deeper than the wind blows and sun shines for free. The actual costs and resources necessary to harness these free forms of energy are just inconvenient costs to subsidize.
Dims do not understand the relevancy of fixed costs.
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Yes, they are lost. And they live in a faux business world. They do not think beyond the end of their crooked noses, and have no sensitivity to any consequence of their actions, incompetence, lust for power or criminal greed.
Good points about the socialist mind. They will cause us to fully fail and degenerate into another Euro-style, weak, impotent economy.
Rush says they use an old playbook. They have demonized oil and utiities for over 100 years. However, they have the only senator from Exxon.
The Headline of this article has me laughing my head off! I believe that cow has already gotten out of the gate, so closing it now won’t do much good.
Can we go inconvenience some caribou in Alaska now?
We should put the families of the miners who died last month in the commercials.
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