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Politics : Politics of Energy -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (5317)	2/26/2009 7:03:12 AM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 86352

Listen.. what I want are incentives to invest in LONG-TERM power generation capacity, which nuclear has proven itself to be (40 years+). I have little, if any, confidence in the long-term reliability/availability of either wind or solar. I fear that wind turbines might have to be completely replaced after only 10-20 years and probably 20-30 years for solar. Solar is becoming increasing efficient. So it's not an entirely bad thing that the systems going in today will have to be replaced in 30 years.... in fact if efficiency increases enough it might make sense to replace them much earlier. And of course, as I've often discussed, neither wind or solar are BASELINE power. Yes, nukes and natural gas make sense where they make sense. Solar and wind make sense where they make sense. And a smart grid really makes sense. I don't understand why you always sound so irritated.

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (5317)	2/26/2009 7:10:29 PM
From: RetiredNow	Respond to of 86352

Looks like the free ride for oil companies is over. Obama is trying to bring a level playing field to the energy markets and that means decreasing subsidies for oil and increasing them for renewable energy. White House seeks to end oil, gas industry tax breaks By Ayesha Rascoe reuters.com WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's budget outline calls for eliminating substantial tax breaks and increasing fees for the oil and natural gas industry. Obama's plan, which must still be approved by Congress, would levy an excise tax on Gulf of Mexico oil and gas that would provide the government with $5.3 billion in revenue from 2011 to 2019. The new tax would close a loophole that the administration says has given oil companies excessive royalty relief. The proposal would also place a fee on nonproducing energy leases on federal lands expected to raise $1.2 billion between 2010 to 2019. Many Democratic lawmakers have complained that oil and gas companies lobby to open more land to energy development but are not diligently developing the nearly 68 million acres to which they already have rights. Several "use it or lose it" energy bills failed to pass Congress last year during a heated debate between lawmakers over whether to open the Outer Continental Shelf to oil and gas drilling. The tax breaks Obama intends to repeal for the oil and natural gas industry include the manufacturing tax credit, the enhanced oil recovery tax credit and the marginal well tax credit. Obama has made transforming the way Americans use energy a key priority for his presidency. He has pledged to double U.S. renewable energy production in three years and wants 10 percent of electricity to come from clean energy sources by 2012. His budget includes more than $50 million in increased funding for the Interior Department to conduct environmental studies necessary to assess alternative energy resources and bolster clean energy development.