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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tonto who wrote (767454)	6/1/2008 6:05:02 AM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 769670

"the lack of an energy plan for decades is harming us tremendously." Exactly! However, I did not mean to suggest that we (the US) had any kind of 'monopoly' on ignorant/pandering/economically illiterate politicians or 'leaders', 'cause we certainly DON'T! One of the things that falls into the "dumb luck" category, and has helped to mitigate some of the damage that could otherwise have been done to our economy is that - dumb and ignorant and craven and dishonest as our bunch has often been - other parts of the world, other countries that are often enemies/competitors to us, have been held-back by EVEN WORSE leadership. :-)

To: tonto who wrote (767454)	6/1/2008 7:17:37 AM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

How to Drive Oil to $200 by: Barry Ritholtz posted on: May 29, 2008 \| about stocks: DBO / OIL / USO On last night's Kudlow & Co., I discussed how absurd US energy policy is. The United States is heavily dependent on fossil fuels (>80%), most of which come from places we would rather not send our money to. We consume 26% of the world's energy, with only 3% of the world’s known oil reserves. It turns out that for the past 3 decades, we've had a George Costanza Energy policy -- every decision we have made as a country has worked to drive energy prices higher. Had we made the opposite decisions (see embedded YouTube clip above), crude oil prices would be much lower than they are today ($130.17 as I type this). seekingalpha.com What follows is a list of energy-related policies of the United States. On many of these, I have no opinion -- but I wanted to list as many as I could to demonstrate why oil is where it is US Policies with an impact on Energy: * Limit areas available for offshore drilling; * Stopped the planned rise of CAFE standards for automobiles; * Restricted nuclear power generation of electrical; * Federal Reserve policies since 2001 led to a very weak US dollar (raising oil prices); * Energy conservation policies? None; * Provided little or no incentives for hybrid automobiles; * No major US R&D research on energy; * Game changing breakthroughs over the past decades in solar, battery, or energy generation technologies? None; * Failed to raise efficiency standards for appliances for decades; * Iraq and Afghanistan Wars contributing to Middle East tensions * Kept CAFE standards for light trucks/SUVs much lower than autos; * Ridiculous corn ethanol policy (driving food prices higher as Oil rises); * Mass transit system is not a priority; * No special capital gains treatment for VC alt.energy investment; * Failed to aggressively promote efficiency improvements for residential energy use, transmission of power, or consumption; * Amongst the lowest gasoline taxes in the developed world; * Limited hydro-electric power generation; * Created a tax incentive [ADCS] that encouraged purchases of large inefficient vehicles; * Aggressive tax incentives for battery technology development? None; * Exempted light trucks, SUVs, and pickups from gas-guzzler tax; * Discouraged clean coal, including gas liquification from coal; * Limited or non-existent state tax Incentives for building energy efficient homes; * Failed to aggressively promote compact fluorescent light bulb; * Allowed tax credits for residential solar power to expire; * Americans, on average, live further from where they work than Europeans do; * No special capital gains tax treatment for clean energy technology development; And that's just off the top of my head. Some of the above is being responded to by the private sector. With oil at $130+, there are significant price incentives for these technologies. However, markets develop solutions only after the economics of it are feasible. This means we are starting R&D with oil at previously unthinkable levels. Imagine if we had some form of energy leadership 10 or 20 years ago when oil was $8. What other policies does the US have that has led to higher Oil prices?