Posted on 05/03/2008 7:26:42 AM PDT by shrinkermd
...Mr. Obama supports most of those "no drilling" rules, but that hasn't stopped him from denouncing high gas prices on the campaign trail. He is running TV ads in North Carolina that show him walking through a gas station and declaring that he'll slap a tax on the $40 billion in "excess profits" of Exxon Mobil.
...Exxon's profits are soaring with the recent oil price spike, but the energy industry's earnings aren't as outsized as the politicians seem to think. Thomson Financial calculates that profits from the oil and natural gas industry over the past year were 8.3% of investment, while the all-industry average is 7.8%. And this was a boom year for oil. An analysis by the Cato Institute's Jerry Taylor finds that between 1970 and 2003 (which includes peak and valley years for earnings) the oil and gas business was "less profitable than the rest of the U.S. economy."
This tiff over gas and oil taxes only highlights the intellectual policy confusion – or perhaps we should say cynicism – of our politicians. They want lower prices but don't want more production to increase supply. They want oil "independence" but they've declared off limits most of the big sources of domestic oil that could replace foreign imports. They want Americans to use less oil to reduce greenhouse gases but they protest higher oil prices that reduce demand. They want more oil company investment but they want to confiscate the profits from that investment. And these folks want to be President?
Late this week, a group of Senate Republicans led by Pete Domenici want to expand oil production off the U.S. coasts and in Alaska. It has the potential to increase domestic production enough to keep America running for five years with no foreign imports.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Interesting that no one is calling for a tax on the windfall profits of farmers.
No!No!No!NO
Allow the building of....
Government has NO business being in business...
the fact is Republicans are as much at fault as this as anyone else...they held the cards from ‘00-’06 and could moved forward drilling in Alaska and other places but did nothing....
Watch the price at the pump soar out of sight!!!
Remember:”... Washington already takes 35% right off the top with the corporate income tax.
FairTax anyone??
I'll take them seriously when they rein in "Big Government".
Until then, it's all blather and drivel.
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