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

To: RetiredNow who wrote (7674)	4/26/2009 7:52:02 PM
From: The Vet	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 86356

the attempt to ensure externalities are priced in I have no quarrel with that principle, if the externalities can be proven and are real, but if they are not the process simply becomes one of government mandated wealth redistribution, otherwise called TAXATION! This reminds me of the story of the man seen travelling the railways of the US who was tearing up newspapers into strips and throwing them out of the window at regular intervals. When asked why he was doing this he replied "To keep the wild elephants away". On being told that there were no wild elephants in North America, his response was "Yes, I know; effective isn't it!".

To: RetiredNow who wrote (7674)	4/26/2009 10:57:24 PM
From: Brumar89	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 86356

The externalities you complain about (and grossly exaggerate imo) are, I think you'd agree, externalities involving oil imported from dangerous, hostile regions of the world. Not with oil we produce ourselves or oil from friendly neighboring countries like Canada or Mexico. Accordingly, the logical way to price any externalities associated with oil from undesirable foreign sources would be to impose an import tax on oil imports. Exclude CN and MX as they're NAFTA treaty countries. That would target the tax on the problem oil only and wouldn't discourage production here or in CN or MX. As I've said before: As to the national security - domestic vs imports issue, I've said before the simplest way to deal with that would be an import tax on oil and gas from sources we don't have a free regional trade relationship with (it makes no sense to tax imports from Canada and Mexico). Set the tax at say $5-10 a barrel from places other than MX and CN. This would encourage domestic production, discourage imports and give the government a source of revenue to fund R&D, refund to the public, whatever. Message 25492295