Finally a Realistic Energy Policy

It only took 32 years for the Congress and the White House to finally realize that the sacrifice American’s need to make is in our energy consumption. All of the SUV’s that are gulping down the Go-go juice will have to change and that is just the beginning of the end of the oil monopoly in the world. President Bush has stated that he will sign the bill into law and frankly I thought he would have vetoed it based on some ridiculous facts. I am frankly and apologetically stating that I was wrong about President Bush and this issue. Stuff that up your back side Haszinski! That is another story from another post.

Through all the arguments in the House and in the Senate over the last few weeks we now have a compromise and an energy policy that just might reverse the madness that is our energy usage. Over at the New York Times they have this coverage on the only real energy policy change in 32 years in America…

House Passes Sweeping Energy Bill

By JOHN M. BRODER
Published: December 18, 2007

WASHINGTON — Legislation that will slowly but fundamentally change the cars Americans drive, the fuel they burn, the way they light their homes and the price they pay for food cleared the House on Tuesday by a large margin. President Bush said he would sign the hard-fought energy bill on Wednesday.

The bill, which passed on a bipartisan vote of 314 to 100, sets higher fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks by law for the first time in 32 years and requires the production of 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels by 2022, a nearly fivefold increase from current ethanol production levels.

The measure, known as the Energy Independence and Security Act, also establishes new efficiency requirements for household appliances and government buildings and aims to phase out the incandescent light bulb within 10 years.

Its passage marks one of the largest single steps on energy that the nation has taken since the Arab oil embargoes of the 1970’s. But its full costs will not be known for years.
Critics contend it will make cars and trucks less safe and more expensive, divert farmland to costly production of feedstock for ethanol and other synthetic fuels, and raise the price of food because of competition for corn and grain between fuel refiners and livestock growers. - New York Times

With the strangle hold of the Middle East on our energy consumption needs we need this policy as a starting point. No matter what items were dropped from this piece of legislation it gets us started down the road to freedom and energy independence. Arguments from both sides of the aisle have finished for now and the debate on tweaking it will be up to the next President’s of this nation and for that matter the next generations coming up. What has been started with this legislation we can only hope that it will begin the process of new energy sources from all thoughts possible by the human mind.

There are so many payoffs to our nation with these changes in the future that leads me to a sense of comfort for the first time in my adult life. This is the first time in three plus decades that our nation and our Government has literally chucked the bird at the corporations here at home and around the world when it comes to our energy needs. Our children or future grandchildren will never be obligated or owned by a foreign nation that can dangle our way of life over their heads ever again. Energy sources made in the good old United States of America and not imported can never be a bad thing.

Somewhere at OPEC headquarters it could possibly be heard “Doo-ohhh!” when President Bush signs this into law. That would be similar to Homer Simpson with an Arabic accent but you get the general idea. At $2.00 production cost for Saudi Arabia and the market price flirting at $100 per barrel every couple of weeks the writing is on the wall for this over priced energy source.

The ramifications of American interest and involvement in the Middle East region with its never ending turmoil because of this policy will drop as our nation slowly backs away from their strangle hold on the oil supply. Energy independence will only work if we keep locking horns over it and debating this critical issue for all Americans. This should not have taken 32 years. I think we can do better than that now. Realistically, we do not have a choice other than to do better.

Papamoka

Cross posted at Bring IT ON! and Michael Linn Jones

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Bite Me Big Oil!

For the first time in 32 years the Congress is actually doing something about the real energy crisis here at home in America. I’m not talking about supply and demand. I’m talking about the reality that our nation is ruled by OIL. All hail his Majesty the King paid for by a generous donation by Exxon Mobil, Texaco, Chevron and Shell etc, etc.
America has a demand problem and as the largest market user of all oil based products in the world there is a market to manipulate when the ones producing the product are netting mega billions a quarter. I’m funny that way, billions of dollars in profit’s a quarter, hmm do you think they are using that profit for the greater good? I don’t think so either. Trillions are to be made on the open market and when you have billions of dollars piling up quarter after quarter it posses a ledger problem that becomes an accountants nightmare. If it isn’t spent on “Research and Development” or other purposes investing in the corporation then those profits are taxable. Then again, maybe not given all the subsidies to the oil companies under W.

In a recent post here titled Saudi Arabia… Screw you Wall Street I talked about this very issue. Saudi Arabia has the ability to supply the market and the facts were revealed in the linked story that they can produce a barrel of oil for just $2! Supply is not the problem! Saudi Arabia is pissed that Wall Street is pointing the finger at them. Then again it’s a far stretch from $2 to the current market price of oil isn’t it? Who want’s to be the bad guy in this latest news buster, the guy in the white robes or the guy in the nice dark blue or black business suit? Frankly, it’s a toss up there but two guys in whatever form of dress mugging you is still a mugging.

American vengeance is a funny thing and when you as a President threaten our pockets with a veto on legislation that will only hurt the billions of profits of your base big oil supporters then we have a problem with King George once again. Two hundred and some odd years forward of the original American Revolution.

House Brushes Aside Veto Threat, Passes Energy Bill

By Jonathan Weisman and Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, December 6, 2007; 5:24 PM

The House today brushed aside a fresh White House veto threat and handily approved a sweeping energy bill that would raise automobile fuel efficiency standards for the first time in 32 years while mandating the generation of electricity from more renewable energy sources.

The 235-181 vote sends the measure to the Senate, where Republicans hope to strip it of tax hikes on the oil industry and renewable electricity mandates before a final version goes to President Bush. The White House objected strongly to the bill on multiple fronts, saying Bush's advisers have recommended a veto.

But with energy prices soaring, lawmakers from both parties expressed strong support for dramatic action, especially on auto efficiency standards that have not changed since the 1970s. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) called the package"nothing less than our nation's declaration of independence from foreign sources of energy."

Snippet and flick it…

The bill also includes appliance and light bulb standards that would effectively phase out the incandescent light bulbs invented by Thomas Edison by the middle of next decade.

To finance tax incentives for hybrid cars, ethanol production and renewable energy development, the bill includes $21 billion in revenue increases , including a rollback of $13.5 billion in tax breaks for the five largest oil companies. - Washington Post

King George and his cronies are looking at the death of big oil just decades down the road and they are having to change their shorts. Even though King George Bush has said over and over again that we need to raise the CAFÉ standards he must have done so with his fingers crossed behind his back. It is official with this up and coming veto that this President was never an American President. He has been nothing but a puppet of his friends and screwed his own people for the sake of a dollar. Not his personal dollars but he got to have a neat office that his Daddy had once, nice car, and all the benefits of being the Deciderer in Chief. Vacation benefits are huge too. Take the first seven years off and work the last one. He only has to work the last year because he by accident found the United States on a freaking map finally! He circled it with a crayola burnt umber if you were wondering.

I laugh at people that say that the price of oil is market driven. While two people at the gas pumps each spit on the pumps, one a Democrat, the other a Republican, one of them is right and the other is just pissed at the market. Both are making the same wage and both are spending more than they can afford just to put gas in the car to get to work. One voted for a Democrat that wanted change eight years ago and the other voted for a self proclaimed American King in disguise. Both have a son in uniform in Iraq. Both are on the edge of losing their homes. It does not matter what either one thinks anymore because we have all been sold out by the King.

Market forces in any field without control will rape all of the people without political recognition no matter what party you vote for in the middle and lower classes. There was a reason why the Democrats held control of both houses for so long. They never sold the middle and lower classes out as well as President Bush has done in two terms. They never trashed the Constitution and used it to wrap the days catch down at the lake because it was yesterdays news.

If maybe really but not for real elected twice President Bush, veto’s this energy bill and his veto is not overturned, then we will all know whom is voting for your future families energy needs. Look to the political Right side of the aisle to find the millionaires club that could care less about you as an individual person coming up with excuses why we still do not need a realistic energy policy. Then check out the largest contributors to their past campaigns and as always follow the damn money.

It all points back to the fact that the Republican servants in our American Congress will protect the money flow from big oil. It’s a huge amount of cash to swallow your pride. George Bush has proven the fact that his time in the White House is a precursor to a President in the steps of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. With so many lost under the footsteps of the Bush millionaires now running our nation it is inevitable that this will scenario must change come the next Presidency. It has too! That is why we all must vote.


Just keep repeating $2 to produce a barrel of oil! Voting Republican next election?

Papamoka

Cross posted at MichaelLinnJones.com and Bring IT ON!

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