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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (324185)	2/1/2007 6:19:31 PM
From: combjelly	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575845

"The alternatives got their feet cut out from under them, because they didn't make economic sense at the time, and in many cases where put in place primarily because of specific subsidies or tax breaks" Several of them made sense at $40 a barrel oil. At $16, things changed. Of course, if we had continued research into some of the more promising ones instead of killing all of them, we would be in better shape. But everyone seemed to assume that under $20 a barrel oil would be forever.

To: TimF who wrote (324185)	2/2/2007 2:04:25 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575845

1) We will have to tax oil and/or gasoline up to some level so that alternatives don't get their feet cut out from under them like they did in the early 1980s. The alternatives got their feet cut out from under them, because they didn't make economic sense at the time, and in many cases where put in place primarily because of specific subsidies or tax breaks. When those subsidies or breaks ended or where modified there wasn't a good reason to have the same level of investment in the industry. Sometimes you have to protect industries with subsidies or taxes on competing materials until such time as the industry is able to stand on its own two feet. Had we taxed oil much like the Europeans did back in the 1980s, we might not be in the dependent position we are in today,fighting an expensive war in the ME. I know that flies in the face of your free markets but the truth is your free markets are not necessarily the most efficient way to stay competitive and on top.