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Showing posts with label Gas Tax Holiday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gas Tax Holiday. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
T. Boone Pickens Being Stonewalled By Republicans
T. Boone Pickens -- a conservative billionaire oil tycoon who is putting billions of dollars into a plan to develop wind farms and convert our car fleet to natural gas -- recently gave an interview and said that Republicans in Congress are stonewalling him because the only thing they're interested in is more oil drilling. What a f*cking surprise!
Q: You told the New York Times last month that you’d never vote for a Democrat. Are you finding that difficult in reaching out to Democrats then with your plan? […]
PICKENS: So I am having no problem working with the Democrats. Having a little problem working with the Republicans. They don’t like it because I want to do more than just drill. And they, somehow have gotten it, a lot of them have, that you can drill your way out of this. But you can’t do it. There’s not enough oil there to do it.
As Think Progress puts it:
Pickens made it clear that, despite five straight weeks of calls for an “all of the above” energy strategy, congressional conservatives are interested in little besides drilling. In fact, last week, when the House passed an energy bill that included conservatives’ demand for offshore drilling, House Republicans opposed it because it would have repealed Big Oil tax breaks to invest in renewable energy. Apparently to Republican ears, “all of the above” sounds just like “Drill Baby drill.”
Friday, August 1, 2008
Offshore Drilling Pledge Nets McCain Big Oil Donations
This is just sick. Leaving aside the fact that opening up new offshore drilling to the big oil companies will produce NO new oil until 2017 and, even when it comes, will have ZERO impact on oil and gas prices, a new report shows that McCain has received an enormous influx of new campaign cash from the big oil companies after making his pledge to lift the ban on new offshore drilling. I hate the influence of big money in politics.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
McCain Lies About Hurricane Environmental Damage, Oil Spills
THE LIE: Bush, McCain and other rabid Republican stalwarts have been telling us recently that lifting the ban on offshore drilling would be a good idea in part because offshore drilling poses little to no environmental risks because Hurricanes Katrina and Rita didn't cause oil spills.
Well, as it turns out, this is an ENORMOUS steaming lie! (Surprise!)
THE TRUTH: In a nutshell, Hurricanes Rita and Katrina caused the spillage of over 9 million gallons of oil, just shy of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska that released 10.8 million gallons! The catastrophic release of crude oil into the environment was called by some: “among the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history.”
I understand that politicians sometimes need to put a spin on things but this is LYING! Bald-faced lying!In fact, the clear satellite evidence of major spills was borne out by final reports. In May 2006, the U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS) published their offshore damage assessment: “113 platforms totally destroyed, and 457 pipelines damaged, 101 of those major lines with 10″ or larger diameter.” […]
Unsurprisingly, this devastation caused significant spillage, according to the official report prepared for the MMS by a Norwegian firm. […]
In addition, the hurricanes caused disastrous spills onshore throughout southeast Louisiana and the rest of the Gulf Coast as tanks, pipelines, refineries and other industrial facilities were destroyed, for a total of 595 different oil spills. The 9 million gallons reported spilled were comparable with the Exxon Valdez’s 10.8 million gallons, but unlike the Exxon Valdez, were distributed throughout Louisiana, Mississippi, and other Gulf Coast states, many in residential areas.
Listen to this interview with Nancy Pfotenhauer, John McCain’s senior energy adviser (!!), who says that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita "DIDN'T SPILL A DROP [OF OIL]":
Friday, June 20, 2008
Quote of the Day: Obama on Coastal Drilling
I am proud of Obama for standing up against McCain's latest ineffectual pander.
Just like McCain's absurd "gas tax holiday" proposal (which all economists agree would save Americans either nothing or $28 on average), McCain's recent proposal to open up America's coastal waters to offshore oil drilling operations (which is, to boot, a 180-degree flip-flop from his earlier position) is a shameless, useless sop to voters that assumes that Americans are too stupid or ill-informed to realize what crap it is (according to recent polls, Americans may indeed be just that stupid ill-informed).
Here is Obama on the latest McCain silliness:
Believe me — if I thought that there was any evidence at all that drilling could save people money who are struggling to fill up their tanks by this summer or this year or even the next few years, I would consider it. But it won’t. And John McCain knows that.
Friday, June 13, 2008
McCain Versus Economists (and Common Sense)
McCain is continuing to dig himself deeper into a hole over this whole "gas tax holiday" stupidity.
Here's the latest from The Carpetbagger Report:
Read MoreAt an event in New Hampshire, asked about his gas-tax holiday proposal, McCain lashed out, angrily saying, “If you want to call it a gimmick, fine. You know the economists? They’re the same ones that didn’t predict this housing crisis we’re in.”
First, I don’t know what McCain has against economists. He’s hired a whole team of them to try to rationalize his ridiculous economic policy.
Second, it’s not just economists who realize McCain’s gas-tax idea is absurd, it’s common sense. We have a fixed supply of gas, so even a little critical thinking shows that “the tax cut really goes to the oil companies.”
And third, blaming economists for failing to predict the housing crisis is especially inane, since the opposite is true.
Monday, June 9, 2008
McCain To Resurrect Absurd Gas Tax Holiday
McCain is at it again. He is planning to resurrect the absurd "gas tax holiday" that he proposed back in March, which was so completely and unequivocally excoriated by every notable economist and commentator who could be reached for comment those many weeks ago.
As a refresher, here are my earlier posts on how ineffectual, wrong-headed and intellectually dishonest the whole proposition is. Barack Obama has routinely spoken out and called this idea out for the shameless pandering that it is.
Here's the word out on McCain today:
John McCain is planning to resurrect his call for a national gas tax holiday, which became a staple of his stump speech in late April and early May. A McCain aide told CNN's Dana Bash on Monday that the Arizona senator planned to plug the gas tax holiday in public statements throughout the day.Here's the Carpetbagger Report's take:Along with Barack Obama, many economists largely dismissed the notion of a gas tax holiday as a political ruse that would do little to lower prices, but McCain has repeatedly said he does not believe the proposal would be a panacea for America’s energy woes.
Instead, McCain argued, low-income families could save some extra cash to pay for their children’s school supplies this fall, or perhaps treat themselves to a nice dinner.
Most economists have estimated that a gas tax holiday would save Americans nothing at the pump, because retailers would simply raise their prices to compensate. Even if we took McCain at his word that it would save some money, it would only save the average consumer $25-30!McCain believes “low-income families could save some extra cash to pay for their children’s school supplies this fall, or perhaps treat themselves to a nice dinner.”
This is just too ridiculous for words. McCain wants to eliminate the 18.4-cent a gallon federal gas tax over the summer. This would cost the Highway Trust Fund between $9 billion and $11 billion. McCain hasn’t said whether he’d just increase the deficit to make up the difference, or just let the transportation money disappear, costing thousands of jobs.
And what would consumers get in return? Nothing. Putting aside the volatility in oil prices, and the fact that the cost of a glass of gas will probably go up over the summer regardless of federal taxes, Americans won’t actually be in a position to save any money if the gas tax is temporarily repealed. McCain may not be the sharpest crayon in the box, but he almost certainly realizes this.
Great, by that logic, how about a $25 gift card to Office Depot (you know, for the school supplies) or McDonald's (for the "nice dinner" that $25 can buy a family of four)?
At least that way we could waste the same amount of money giving out worthless freebies to people without depleting the state infrastructure renewal funds that are funded by the federal gas tax.
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