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The T. Boone Pickens Earmark Bill (Ron Paul Co-Sponsors Taxpayer Boondoggle)
Globalwarming.or ^

Posted on 05/14/2011 5:45:17 PM PDT by mnehring

Post image for The T. Boone Pickens Earmark Bill

Republicans in the House of Representatives are flocking to support a bill to extend and create a number of taxpayer-funded subsidies for manufacturers and buyers of vehicles powered by natural gas.   Nearly eighty House Republicans (and a hundred Democrats) have signed up as sponsors of H. R. 1380, the New Alternative Transportation to Give Americans Solutions Act (or NAT GAS Act).  Just call it the T. Boone Pickens Earmark Bill.

Many conservative Republicans in the House, particularly a number of new Members with Tea Party connections, have sworn that the fiscal and economic crisis confronting America requires a radical change in federal policies.  Out-of-control spending must be stopped; spending earmarks must be abolished; crony capitalists on the prowl for corporate welfare must be sent packing; subsidies for special interests must be abolished; government must stop interfering in the economy and let free markets work.

That big talk doesn’t seem to apply when the spending is being earmarked for a crony capitalist who is one of the biggest contributors to Republican candidates in history–billionaire T. Boone Pickens.  Apparently, some subsidies are good if they benefit the right special interests.  And government interference in the economy is wonderful if it is done in the name of reducing oil imports.

H. R. 1380 would extend the tax credit of 50 cents per gallon of liquid natural gas (or its equivalent of compressed natural gas) when used for fueling vehicles and provide purchasers of natural gas vehicles with credits ranging from $7,500 to $64,000.  The lower end is for passenger cars and the upper end for big trucks.  There are also credits for natural gas vehicle manufacturers and for installing natural gas fueling stations.

Why are billions of dollars of taxpayer-funded subsidies needed?  According to T. Boone Pickens’s web site, it’s because natural gas vehicles are cheaper to operate than gasoline or diesel vehicles:  “Even with higher initial costs (which will disappear as manufacturing ramps up) the life-cycle costs of NGVs [natural gas vehicles] are significantly lower.  Fuel costs are at least 15 percent less using natural gas rather than gasoline or diesel.”

So people need to be paid in order to make them want to buy vehicles that will save them money.  Yes, that makes sense: I always prefer the more expensive product unless there is a government rebate for the cheaper one.  Call it the Boonedoggle bill.

As for getting us off foreign oil, this claim is trotted out to support every payoff to special interests in the energy sector.  It’s a claim for which little evidence is ever produced.  What will reduce our dependence on foreign oil is producing more of it in this country.  What the bill will do is increase demand for natural gas, which will tend to increase prices for natural gas, which means a big payoff for T. Boone Pickens, who has invested heavily in–you’ll never guess–natural gas.

It’s sad to look at the list of conservatives who claim to be principled who have signed up to support the Boonedoggle.  Here’s the complete list of Republican sponsors as of today.  The chief sponsor is Rep. John Sullivan of Oklahoma.  Most surprising and perhaps most disappointing is Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who claims that he votes against everything that isn’t in the Constitution.  I seemed to have missed the section of the Constitution that allows taking billions of dollars from taxpayers to give to fatcat billionaires and corporate welfare queens.  Call it the Pickens-Your-Pocket bill.

This stampede by conservatives, including several freshmen who identify with the Tea Party, to support the T. Boone Pickens Earmark Bill makes a mockery of their claims to want to cut federal spending, eliminate subsidies to special interests, and get government out of people’s lives.  We’re very close to returning to business as usual in Washington.


TOPICS: Government; Miscellaneous; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: earmark; globalwarming; naturalgas; pickens; pork; ronpaul
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To: Loyal Sedition
Oh, it’s a GAS. not a liquid, if you run out for any reason you have to call a tow truck!

You got ripped off. I have been looking at the dual fuel system. Run out of gas and switch back over to gasoline. The home compressor is the only thing that is giving me pause. The conversion kit is 3.5K. The home compressor is 7K. They just are not producing enough of them yet. Even at that price I have not turned down this option.
61 posted on 05/14/2011 8:41:18 PM PDT by PA Engineer (Time to beat the swords of government tyranny into the plowshares of freedom.)
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To: meatloaf

You can fill it at home. Palm Springs, CA Sun Bus line has been on Natural gas for nearly 20 years, they have sold home conversion kits for at least that long.


62 posted on 05/14/2011 8:41:31 PM PDT by itsahoot (We make jokes, they make progress. Dimmitude, get used to it.)
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To: mnehring

A tax credit is not the same thing as a subsidy. I would love to see as many tax credits given as possble. The more money kept out of government hands and in private hands, the better.


63 posted on 05/14/2011 8:43:59 PM PDT by Pining_4_TX
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To: Pining_4_TX

Same result, tax money taken from one group and given to another for the purpose of engineering behavior. The only difference is one is front loaded and one is back loaded. The bill also gives pretty much a blank check for grants for R&D.


64 posted on 05/14/2011 8:47:25 PM PDT by mnehring
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To: mnehring

I agree that there should not be grants, but I don’t think tax credits are bad. You are assuming that the government is going to keep taking the same amount (probably a correct assumption), and then, yes, someone else would have to pay more. But the solution is not to deny tax credits, but to cut spending. Until that is done, the government will just continue to suck up more and more of everyone’s money. So, yes, I do think it is better to keep as much as possible out of the hands of greedy politicians.


65 posted on 05/14/2011 8:51:41 PM PDT by Pining_4_TX
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To: Pining_4_TX

Oh, and the bill does have subsidies under the guise of ‘incentive programs’ for manufacturers, Section 202. It makes LNG qualify for the same auto company subsidies as they get for other ‘advanced technology vehicles’.


66 posted on 05/14/2011 9:02:40 PM PDT by mnehring
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To: mnehring

*sigh* I should have known.


67 posted on 05/14/2011 9:05:04 PM PDT by Pining_4_TX
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To: PA Engineer

No, never been towed.
There is no gasoline back-up on this truck.
Lack of filling stations is one reason the truck is only driven locally.

The fellow who had the conversion done was required to remove the gasoline tanks by the county in order to be “Smog legal”.

I got the truck when he moved to a state that would not allow it to be registered there, I think his daughter said Texas, might have been Arizona?

I have obtained original gasoline tanks, cannot wait to put them back on and toss the #@&%! Propane system.
The engine is a rebuilt 305 V8, gutless on propane.
I have much stronger running 225 V6’s, on gasoline!

I only bought this truck as it was dirt cheap, no one wanted it without a gasoline capability.

If Nat. Gas will meet your personal performance/hauling needs, you may as well just go electric.


68 posted on 05/14/2011 9:07:17 PM PDT by Loyal Sedition (Loyal Sedition, often described as "To the right of Attila The Hun"!)
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To: mnehring
You miss the the Paul ethos here.

Paul is against the tax code , therefore using it to give a tax credit that will promote an industry , market or activity is in line with his philosophy.


69 posted on 05/14/2011 9:39:12 PM PDT by NoLibZone (Unless Reagan rises from the dead, we can easily find at least one reason to skip a leading GOPer.)
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To: NoLibZone
After seeing how the paultards twisted and spun his voting for Pelosi's tax hike bill back in December, I think we are going to start having to use this instead of the decoder ring.


70 posted on 05/14/2011 9:43:46 PM PDT by mnehring
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To: mnehring

T. Boon Doggle?


71 posted on 05/14/2011 9:56:13 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Hawk)
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To: Loyal Sedition
If Nat. Gas will meet your personal performance/hauling needs, you may as well just go electric.

If you stuck a push pin on a map and then stuck push pins on the gas wells drilled in the last five years within 20 miles, you would think I lived in the middle of a zombie invasion. Ground zero.

We have no regulations on dual fuel and have MP service to the meter. The kit (for a turbo) I will buy is good for about 200 miles per fill, plus the standard 14 gallon gasoline tank. The commuting is about 54 miles a day, so there is an economic incentive to do the switch. The commuting payback is slightly less than two years.

The kicker is still the home fuel station. If the gas company provided a lease option, I would already be running with gas. If local service stations (who are already supplied with NG) had the pumps, I would also already be converted.

The economics are there, but the hybrid NG-Gasoline option has been shelved for more expensive and complex electric. I have seen a dramatic increase in CNG compressors over the past several months, so I think the economics are probably here now with gasoline at $4 gallon.

I am against the government meddling. The best the government could do is to shut down the EPA and FERC and let people decide their options. I like the CNG hybrid. If gasoline is more economical, it is just a flip of a switch. If CNG is cheaper some month, then just home fuel. Either way, we do not have to be held hostage to oil imports. As CNG hybrids become more abundant, the dollars stay here in the US and depress foreign oil prices. I imagine part of the headwind issue is the difficulty of the state and federal government to tax by the mile.
72 posted on 05/14/2011 10:04:35 PM PDT by PA Engineer (Time to beat the swords of government tyranny into the plowshares of freedom.)
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To: yadent

Not every thing will be converted to natural gas. Diesel is still the fuel of choice because of its energy content for trains and heavy trucks. For trucks above 3/4 ton, factory options will be limited because of power. AFAIK Ford only did 1/2 ton trucks because of the reduced power from NG.

Small economy cars with high enough mileage on gasoline don’t make sense to convert because of the reduced space for a CNG tank.


73 posted on 05/14/2011 10:53:21 PM PDT by meatloaf
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To: mnehring
Weeeeelllll, the Galveston looney tune is serving a pork fat banquet to T. Boone on our tab!!!! Who'd a thunk it??? Certainly not the Paulistinian zombies.

Thanks for the heads up.

74 posted on 05/14/2011 10:56:27 PM PDT by BlackElk (Dean of Discipline, Tomas de Torquemada Gentlemen's Club: Burn 'em Bright!!!)
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To: nkycincinnatikid

I will defer to others to speak for themselves but I would observe that several of us (most of us) who are severe critics of the Galveston nutcase have taken a rather consistent attitude of wait and see on Rand Paul who, so far, seems verrrry much more rational than his imbecile father. There is little point in blaming the son for the windtunnelness of his idjit father. If Rand continues to be responsible as a leader and legislator he will be a worthy successor to Jim Bunning and deserves our best wishes.


75 posted on 05/14/2011 11:09:38 PM PDT by BlackElk (Dean of Discipline, Tomas de Torquemada Gentlemen's Club: Burn 'em Bright!!!)
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To: PA Engineer

Here in Nevada, and other states I am sure, the tax folk set up a number to call for the purpose reporting your neighbor for making bio-diesel at home.
They really want those taxes, I’m sure the same number would be used to report a person home fueling with CNG.

With a minor reward offered, that number may be more of a growth industry than the alternate fuels!

The proposed miles driven tax is our reward (punishment) for electric and any other vehicle that avoids the current tax collection structure.

I would not be surprised to see them auditing CNG compressor sales to find buyers to prosecute for tax evasion.


76 posted on 05/15/2011 12:43:00 AM PDT by Loyal Sedition (Loyal Sedition, often described as "To the right of Attila The Hun"!)
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To: mnehring; Bockscar; Thunder90; rdl6989; marvlus; Fractal Trader; Whenifhow; grey_whiskers; ...
 




Beam me to Planet Gore !

77 posted on 05/15/2011 3:45:40 AM PDT by steelyourfaith (If it's "green" ... it's crap !!!)
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To: EscondidoSurfer

“None of the above” would be the correct answer.


78 posted on 05/15/2011 5:00:34 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: FReepers

Please Donate


79 posted on 05/15/2011 5:01:51 AM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet)
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To: LSUfan

ping


80 posted on 05/15/2011 9:35:09 AM PDT by mnehring
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