Increased taxes=Lower Gas Prices?

So the congressional Democrats, displaying their usual masterful understanding of economics, are now pushing for a massive increase in taxes on oil comopanies and their evil "windfall profits". They're also looking to sue oil producers and make "price gouging" a crime.

These nimrods can't possibly believe that increasing taxes on and regulation of oil/gas will result in lower prices, can they? I think this is simple opportunism with Democrats seeing a chance to do what Democrats love to do: RAISE TAXES.

Either way, be they complete morons or opportunists, they suck. They allow the problem to continue without doing anything that would actually help. It's going to be really great if Obama gets elected and these idiots have free reign to do whatever they please. DAMN, WE ARE FUCKED!

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

Republicans suck, their deregulation put us in this mess, which concerns more than oil prices. There aren't shortages in supply, so there's no good reason why prices are increasing so dramatically. The oil companies benefit, and their so-called "windfall" profits should indeed be taxed and the money put into infrastructure. We should regulate speculators in the market. No one is personally going to be taxed more, so why should you care?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

Interesting statement, Mad. You really seem attached to oil companies. There is certianly no valid economic argument that would preclude a windfall profit tax. If the oil company executives are to be believed, there is nothing they did to earn these huge profits that exceed anything ever before recorded.

Taxing these profits would not hinder production nor increase production. Presently oil companies have no plan to expand/increase oil production beyond present day limits despite projected demand growth of 1.3 per cent per year (Exon's numbers). Billions of dollars in tax credits do not seem to have caused oil companies to have expanded production. Taxation, more or less tax, has never affected oil production. So what would cause oil companies to expand production? My guess would be a windfall profits tax that is scalled based on production.

For example, if an oil company expands production (meaning the oil they remove from the ground ) by10 percent they get a 10 percent reduction of the windfall profits tax. Then they would have done something to earn the profit.

Similarly, giving the oil companies money and tax credits for almost a half century to develop and bring to market alternatiave fuels has been a big flop. Because there were no performance measures associated with the huge tax cuts they received.

Windfall profit tax for the oil industry is a good idea. The federal government is over its head in debt and deficit spending. It needs the money! Taxing profits that were not in anyway associated with good or bad behaviors of the oil companies makes perfect sense. In order to tax, one must tax those that have the money. It makes no sense to tax those that do not have the money. And in the case of oil companies, they have the money.

The key to running a capitalistic society is to keep money flowing...keep the markets competitive. Government should keep markets competitive. Without good regulation, capitalistic societies tend to become less competitive over time through the formations of oligopolies and monopolies. It should be the roll of government to bust up these organizations when they occur and keep markets competitive.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

(Insert title here)

It should be noted that Exxon's recent record quarterly profits accompanied a decrease in production.

• • •​

What kind of moron, though, is going to actually believe that traditional appeals to economic principle apply? The oil companies are going to continue to raise prices and harvest record profits no matter what the politicians do.

What do you think will return gas prices in the United States to $2.50 a gallon? $3.00? Seriously, we're never going to see $2.00 gas again. But what about a $3.00 gallon of gas? If we won the war tomorrow, would it happen?

No.

Americans are waking up to the fact that executives of diverse industries appeal to economic principle as a means of extortion. It's part of the reason, for instance, that enough people are ready to circumvent health insurance executives and appeal to the government. People are sick of petroleum executives. The only part of traditional economic principle that applies right now is the part where you push your luck and see how much you can get people to pay for your product.

 

This will really set Mad off. But, if we cannot keep industries competitve, then nationalization is a possibility...just like what has happened to the healthcare industry in the rest of the industial world.

When it comes to oil, as long as we are tied to the international oil markets we are going to be tied to the international cartel pricing. We need to be energy independent, it is too important to not be energy independent. We could over night reduce our imports by over a million barrels a day, simply by not exporting Alaskan oil.

We need a competitve domestic market or it needs to become part of the infrastructure and nationalized. We need to have energy companies producing enough energy from whatever source to satisfy our needs. Industry should not be restricting supply artificially by any mechanism. And that happens too often in the United States...with congress and the president a willing accomplice.

Reminds me of what moms say to their children, " if you cannot play nice, I will take it away from you".

 

What deregulation? The fact that we can't drill off the west coast, the east coast, ANWAR, that the Democrats block and botched, every attempt to expand the use of our own resources, yes what deregulation?

 

I think SpiderGoat is referrng to allowing exemptions to anti-trust laws for the oil companies...permitting them to vertically integrate...meaning they control the oil from the ground to your gas tank. Vertical integration by the oil companies has been a disaster. It has permitted oil companies to exercise a great deal of influence over pricing and product. It keeps alternative fuels off the market. In my opinion, we should not allow oil companies to be vertically integrated.

As far as Anwar, it is a nit. But I have no problem with the oil companies drilling anywhere as long as they do it safely and commit to not exporting it as they do today. It does us no good to drill more oil and then export it to China. It only makes sense to drill more oil in the United States if that oil stays in the United States...which it does not. We could reduce our oil imports by more than a million barrels per day if we stopped exporting oil to China.

When oil companies first received permission to drill in Alaska, they agreed to keep that oil in the United States. And when no one was looking, they got congress to allow them to export that oil to our good buds in China.

 

Reference the legeslation that exempts the U.S. Oil Industry from Anti Trust Laws.

The only thing that I know, is exempt from Anti-Trust Legeslation is the Base Ball Industry.

 

The oil in Alaska isn't shipped to our Buds, the Chinese, it goes to our Bud's, the Japanese, Mexicans, Canadians, mostly the Japanese, who help fund the exploration and drilling of that oil as partners with the U.S. Oil Industry, and with the approval of Congress.


History of the Japan and Alaska Relationship
Japan is Alaska’s largest trading partner. Alaska and Japan have ... as the Alaska North Slope natural gas development project with Marubeni Corporation ...
http://www.jetrosf.org/library/PDF/states_alaska.pdf


In 2005, Alaska’s energy exports of liquefied natural gas, light petrochemicals and coal totaled $335 million, the second highest amount of the past five years. Japan accounted for just over 60 percent of Alaska’s energy exports with LNG purchases of $137 million and refined petroleum product purchases of $66 million. Mexico’s energy import of $75 million of Alaska refined petroleum product marks the first time that the country has imported from Alaska at that level. Hong Kong and Canada bought $27 million and $15 million respectively of refined petroleum product.


In 2005, Governor Murkowski continued negotiations with Alaska’s major oil producers about gas pipeline development. For the most current information on this important project, see http://www.gov.state.ak.us/gasline/
Alaska’s North Slope daily production of nearly one million barrels of crude oil per day flows to U.S. refineries. Between 1996 and 2000, around five and half percent of North Slope crude oil production was exported and is reflected in Alaska’s higher energy export values for that period.


Hong Kong bought $27 million of refined petroleum product from Alaska no crude oil.

 

MadAnthonyWayne:

It is clear that the average AMerica is being punished brutally by the obscene price of gas. Frankly, it is intolerable and cannot continue. There is no way the economic backbone of the American ecnomy - it's middle class - can survive without some form of relief.

What do you purpose we do? I agree that further taxation is not a good idea, but what can we do to actually get the prices low? America can not sustain this for years and years. Food prices are skyrocketting. The average America is now failing to make ends meet and seeing opportunities for jobs evapourate to out sourcing.

Meanwhile, I see no reason to give special tax breaks to oil companies. Either cut taxes or demand them in full. Breaks for a company that is making billions in profits seems both unnecessary and frankly illegal (equal treatment before the law).

 

Oh, there is also a matter of stagnant wages since the 90's despite inflation.

But on the food prices point, on a personal level, 20 years ago I remember that it took two huge grocery carts of food to ring up a 100 dollar bill. This would be all the shopping necessary for at least more than a week. Now, for enough grocies for three days and without even filling the refridgerator up, it costs a 120-150. If we wanted to do the two huge carts, it'd be 300 dollars easy.

These problems have to be addressed somehow. How?

 

well one thing that i think would help is to quit out sourcing manufacturing jobs. good manufacturing jobs are what gave rise to the middle class in the states

 

I agree 100%.

We should do a lot of things. First, open up ANWR, the coasts, the national parks, every fucking place to drilling. Stop this nonsense about limiting carbon emisions. Tell the environmentalists to fuck off, we can't afford their nonsense anymore.

Fast track approval for nuke plants, coal plants, hydroelectric dams, oil refineries, etc. Again, tell environmentalists to fuck off and stop gumming up the works. We need energy more than we need the spotted owl or the polar bear.

Consider the fact that in order to even begin building the boarder fence the government had to pass a law exempting it from all environmental laws. That's how fucked up we are right now. We've got so many bullshit environmental laws that you can't even build a damned fence without violating them! What kind of environental impact does a fence have?

The sole goal of the EPA should be protecting human health. A dam is no threat to human health. A fence is no threat to human health. Environmental law should have no bearing on building these things.

Also, instead of raising taxes on oil companies, tell them that the first company to double its domestic oil production will pay zero corporate taxes that year, and every year they continue to double production.

Same deal for the first company to begin producing oil from coal or shale.

I'd wager that simply announcing those policies would cause an immediate drop in the price of oil.

I agree. Now how do we keep those jobs here? Is it by raising taxes on corporations, increasing regulations? Making CEO's personally liable for the actions of their companies?

I don't think so. If you want to keep jobs in the US, you need to create an environent friendly to business. Low taxes, minimal regulations, tort reform, etc.

The Left loves to demonize corporations, they love to tax them, to harass them on national TV in front of congressional commitees, to regulate them. And then, you're surprised when these companies move overseas! It's like a husband who constantly beats his wife and is then surprised when she finally leaves him. Eventually, even Atlas shrugs!

 

So in other words you don't want the EPA to do its job.

 

When you can't even build a fence without making yourself exempt from environmental laws, we're going way overboard.

I'm all for clean air and water. I like to breath and drink. But I also like to have my lights come on when I flip the switch. I like it when the economy is booming. So let's not go overboard with this crap to the point we haven't built a nuke plant or an oil refinery in decades!

 

about the fence a big enough fence in the wrong area can have a large effect if it changes migration routes

 

part of the problem is american coporate culture.they aren't as concerned with the nation and its people's wellbeing as european and japanese coporations.

 

It's about someone is at least trying to do something about it.
Their appearance before the Republican controlled congress was a joke and an insult.
They weren't even required to swear in.
The industry of something that is as critical as oil is right now in politics, power, pollution, ecology and something which immediately and greatly impacts the public should be under great scrutiny.
If not made into a state venture, it shoud at least have great oversight, caps put on executive salaries and have prices and profits limited.

I hope the taxes will be earmarked for alternative energy research and development.

I thought it was already a crime.
To price gouge on what has ended up being a necessity of life in our times and has such an immediate and powerful impact on all of our lives should be criminal.

 

I'm sure it could. So what? Does this affect humans in any way?

 

it could if it ends up leading to desertification