In a tread entitled "BEFORE Trying To Simply Hike the Fuel Tax . . ."
Day Brown hughes.net> wrote:
******************
Now, in this case, I dont blame the oil outfits for not looking for new
sources of alternative energy. They know how to make money off oil, and
are not keen on some new technology to compete with it. Very well. Tax
the bastards to motivate them. Profits are positive re-inforcement,
taxes are negative re-inforcement. They both work.
**********************

The Taxation of oil company profits is in fact a tax on rent that will not
be passed to consumers. If the oil companies could get higher prices they
would already be doing it. And so long as the proceeds of the tax are
disbursed to the general public it won't make any difference anyway. So a
100%% surtax on oil company profits in excess of X simply redistributed as
a quarterly "stimulus" in the same form as the present "stimulus" will do
very nicely. As oil prices increase driving profits above X then the oil
companies get the wrench. That is some serious motivation to help in the
effort to reduce the prices.

The Trucker wrote:

They haven't. Why did oil prices drop so precipitously after 1983? Oil
companies themselves are largely gutted. They went from Silly Putty to
Enron.

On May 16, 10:48 pm, The Trucker verizon.net> wrote:

On Sat, 17 May 2008 02:30:44 -0400, Les Cargill wrote:

On Sat, 17 May 2008 10:19:56 -0700, HarryNadds wrote:

On May 17, 1:02 pm, The Trucker verizon.net> wrote:

Knuckledragginhick wrote:

What arguments? Do I havta scan all the way back thru the thread, or can
we just carry on with the most recent points that are still fresh in mind?

I dont see the data to support dismissiveness or ad hominum. Whatever we
get to see is spun by the source. It'd be nice to hear what the
lobbyists are telling congress, and it'd be nice to hear what Gulf Oil
barons are telling the transnat oil honchos.

But lacking that, all we have is reasonable speculation based on the
nature of man, greed, and politics. Both the leadership and the voters,
the CEOs and the consumers, are greedy and stupid.

Trying to motivate the CEOs and various national oil barons to search
for alternatives to oil just goes against human nature. Taxing them for
the money to fund research in the public interest, and to maximize the
profits of small business- which also has no say in what goes on between
the leadership and the boardrooms- makes more sense.

The Trucker wrote:

Les Cargill wrote:

Testosterone. The drive to have more power and money in order to have
more pussy, and with more pussy have more sons to grow up as allies.

But- after 5000 years of rule by the warrior class, the brave heart,
strong right arm, sword in hand... no longer cuts it. Smith & Wesson
guarantee equal rights for smart women.

And they are organizing underneath the radar. I saw some witches run a
safe sex orgy, and saw for weeks afterwards how that adjusted attitudes
and how all the dudes who'd formerly been into power trips could only
talk about what they could do to advance the witch agenda.

On May 17, 7:48 pm, Day Brown hughes.net> wrote:

New technologies with significant profit potential?

You see it but they don't?

Do you know what delusions of grandeur is? "If only Day Brown was in
charge"!

In fact the oil industry spends billions of dollars on new
technologies - to make it economical to drill in the tundra or in the
raging waters of the N. Sea or in the deep waters in the Gulf of
Mexico. They are investing billions now in tar sands. They would be
happy to spend billions in ANWR or in restricted coastal waters.

Don't blame them, Sparky. Blame the enviroNazis.

Fred Weiss