Soaring Gas Prices.... Go Hug A Tree

This has got to be one of the most ignorant ideas ever suggested by a politician...

From Chron.com:

SENATE GOP PLAN CALLS FOR $100 GAS REBATE But if proposal is linked to Arctic drilling, intense opposition certain

By DAVID IVANOVICH
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Scrambling to respond to the public outcry about gas prices, Senate Republicans want to send taxpayers a $100 rebate check to help ease some of the pain at the pump.

But if GOP leaders stick with their strategy of packaging this proposal with a provision to open the Arctic National Wildlife to oil drilling, they will ensure the bill will face a bitter fight for survival.

"Even now, it will be hard to get this done," Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., conceded Thursday.

With gas prices at more than $3-a-gallon in many markets, Exxon Mobil Corp. reporting $8.4 billion in first-quarter profits and Democrats touting their plan for a 60-day gasoline tax holiday, Republicans responded by unveiling a package that would rescind tax breaks for oil companies and use that money to help consumers buy hybrid vehicles.

Their plan would create a federal law banning price gouging, clarify the Transportation secretary's authority to set fuel mileage standards for passenger cars and provide incentives for construction of new oil refineries.

"Americans today are unfairly being asked to empty their wallets at the gas pump," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.

Frist said he would like to move forward with a bill "in the very near future."

The Republican proposal came two days after Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., announced a plan to suspend the 18.4-cent-per-gallon federal gas tax for 60 days to help motorists.

Menendez estimates his plan would save U.S. consumers $100 million per day.

"While Exxon Mobil executives are popping champagne and celebrating their record profits, American families are popping antacids under the strain of soaring gas prices," Menendez said in a statement.

While lawmakers were busily raising voters' expectations that they might be able to do something to lower soaring pump prices, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told a joint House-Senate panel: "Unfortunately there's nothing, really, that can be done that's going to affect energy prices or gasoline prices in the very short run."

The typical Houston motorist was paying $2.92 a gallon for regular unleaded Thursday, on par with the national average, according to AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report.

No income, no rebate
The centerpiece of the GOP plan calls for Uncle Sam to send a $100 check by Aug. 30 to taxpayers who reported adjusted gross income of up to $145,950 for single filers and $218,950 for married couples on their 2005 tax forms.

Even those who reported only $5 worth of adjusted gross income for the year would qualify for the $100 rebate, proponents say. But poorer workers who pay no federal income taxes would not be eligible for the gas rebate plan.

"There could be a loophole of hundreds of thousands of people who would not be impacted," noted Keith Ashdown, vice president for policy for Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washigton-based tax watchdog group. "On a percentage of their income, they're the ones that are feeling (the cost increase) a lot, lot more. Some of us have been kicked, but they've been kicked in the teeth."

Many Democrats support slapping the oil companies with a new, windfall profits tax. But Bernanke warned Thursday that "profits taxes have the adverse effect of removing ... one of the major incentives of our market system."

A potential deal-killer in the Republican proposal is the measure that would allow the nation's oil companies to hunt for crude in a portion of the Arctic Wildlife Refuge, which is thought to be the largest untapped oil deposit left onshore in the United States.

That provision, which has failed repeatedly, would spark fierce opposition by both Democrats in the Senate as well as moderate Republicans in the House.

House working on options
In the House, GOP leaders are crafting a more modest package that, among other things, would aim to reduce the number of "boutique" gasoline blends required around the country.

That concerns the nation's refiners, who have spent massive amounts of cash to configure their facilities to produce those fuels.

To highlight their proposals, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and other Republican leaders rode in hydrogen-powered cars to a BP station on Capitol Hill, where regular unleaded was selling for $3.10 a gallon.

Pointing to gas stations in the Dallas area that have run dry in recent weeks, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton, R-Ennis, has raised concerns about refiners' ongoing switch-over from MTBE-blended gasoline to fuel containing ethanol.

Refiners added methyl tertiary butyl ether to gasoline sold in Houston and other cities with the worst air pollution to help the fuel burn more cleanly. But MTBE has been blamed for fouling water supplies.

And after lawmakers refused last year to grant the industry protection from water contamination lawsuits, refiners opted to eliminate use of MTBE.

President Bush has ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to waive environmental rules if needed to avoid supply disruptions that might arise during the transition.

But Barton wants to grant refiners liability protection on a temporary basis. That's sure to complicate passage of a bill, since Democrats are vehemently opposed to granting legal protections to MTBE makers.

Are you kidding me a $100 gas rebate? Is this country so broke that politicians actually believe that dangling one lousy Benjamin ($100...) in the collective faces of the American people that a paltry $100 will somehow ease the burden of gas prices? Give me a break Senator Frisk; are you really that out of touch with the masses you claim to serve?

There are two sides to this dilemma. First of all, we are spoiled Americans. The rest of the world sees it and most Americans take so much for granted they can't even grasp the magnitude of terrorism and/or freedom and frequently dismiss/abuse one as easily as the other.
In most parts of the world people would crawl over one another for the opportunity to get gas for $3 a gallon. Hell, when I was stationed in Japan over two years ago the Japanese were paying about 1.3 Yen per liter. That is roughly $5 per gallon at the exchange rate at the time. I have friends in England that report gas prices (off the installation) in the One Pound per liter range or roughly $7 per gallon. Germany when I was there last year was around 1.5 Euro per Liter. Notice a trend here? These are not third world backward countries. These are modern superpowers, maybe not in a military sense, but certainly from a economical perspective. These are some of the most financially wealthy and well developed nations on Earth. So are we just lucky in the U.S. to only pay $3 per gallon?
Second, tap the F*cking Oil in Alaska. The untapped oil in the Arctic Wildlife Preserve could leave us free from the grip of both Middle Eastern Oil companies and the likes of OPEC.
People need to decide. Which is more important a tree they would have never seen in their lifetime in Alaska or paying $65 a tank of gas, like I do on a nearly weekly basis?
So, do I think it is ridiculous to pay $3 a gallon for gas, you are DAMN right! I grew up listening to stories from my parents about .25 cents a gallon and $4,000.00 cars. Ah, yesteryear. He wait a minute. When I enlisted in the Air Force in 1994 I made more money as an E-1 than people did as an E-6 when my Father was in. My Truck cost nearly $40,000.00 not 4 grand, sounds relative. What’s that silly word… Inflation!
Stop and think about this. A gallon of water can cost upwards of $10 per gallon depending on which sorry brand/flavor/size you buy to equal that gallon. A gallon of Starbucks could cost you $20 a gallon.
So, let’s see... Drink water from the tap, make your own coffee and you'd have more than enough spare change to buy gas. Hey wait a minute, make your own coffee, and drink tap water... This is starting to sound like life in this country a few decades ago. I know that cutting back on bottled water and Starbucks isn't going to impact gas prices, but it could certainly make swallowing them a little easier (pun intended).

Bottom line is this... If you don't want to pay $3 per gallon for gas, don't! Supply and demand people, if the demand drops so will the price. It is greed that has driven gas costs through the roof. A nation of people willing to spend 10% of their income on bottled water and designer coffee has fueled that greed. If you can afford Evian (notice it is Naive spelled backwards) and Starbucks what's $3 a gallon for the gas you need to get to and from work/school/Doctor/grocery etc.???

So, who will this little post inflame?

Sound off!

lagleRock Out!

Posted by SlagleRock at May 2, 2006 08:54 PM | TrackBack