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Politics : The Environmentalist Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Brumar89 who wrote (32275)	2/11/2011 1:53:13 PM
From: Brumar89	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 36921

Ex-Shell CEO Says Subsidies Aren't Necessary Amy Harder 10 February, 2011 National Journal I don't like the term subsidy for what is usually just normal tax treatment. But loss of the socalled subsidies would do little damage to big oil. For one thing, the big oil companies are usually international .... and the socalled subsidies don't apply to foreign operations anyway. Smaller domestic companies are another story. Large oil companies don’t need tax subsidies when oil prices are high, a former CEO of Shell Oil said Thursday. “In the face of sustained high oil prices it was not an issue--for large companies--of needing the subsidies to entice us into looking for and producing more oil,” John Hofmeister told National Journal Thursday. Hofmeister, who retired from Shell in 2008 and founded the group Citizens for Affordable Energy, testified to a House subcommittee Thursday morning on how Egyptian unrest is affecting oil prices. Before that hearing, he had told Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., in a private conversation that big oil companies don’t need the subsidies given the high oil prices. Markey mentioned Hofmeister’s comment in a press conference later Thursday when introducing legislation eliminating $5 billion worth of subsidies to the major oil and gas companies. “He told me that privately today but that he would say that in public if asked to do so,” Markey said after the press conference. The issue didn’t come up in the hearing, but Hofmeister confirmed to National Journal that he had told Markey that. “I told him that my overall position on that topic has not changed from testimony I gave back in 2008 when we had the very high gasoline prices,” said Hofmeister, who testified in several hearings during the spring and summer of 2008 when he was CEO of Shell. He noted that other executives of major oil companies who testified then said the same thing. Hofmeister’s comments come at a time when Democrats in both chambers of Congress are calling out Republicans for their continued support of oil and gas subsidies while simultaneously pledging to slash funding in almost every area of the federal government. Republicans have not and almost certainly will not cut the subsidies despite this political pressure. The GOP and the American Petroleum Institute say that the subsidies are necessary so jobs in the oil industry aren’t lost or shipped to other countries. For the major companies like Shell, Chevron, BP, ConocoPhillips and Exxon, that doesn’t seem to be true. Hofmeister said that the range at which large oil companies don’t need subsidies is around $70 a barrel or higher, as opposed to the $30 range, which is where they plummeted to in December 2008 when the global economy was crashing. Brent crude oil closed Thursday at slightly above $100 a barrel. “The fear of low oil prices drives some companies to say that subsidies should be sustained,” Hofmeister said. “And my point of view is that with high oil prices such subsidies are not necessary.” Hofmeister stressed that he was not talking on behalf of Shell anymore or any other oil company. “If prices revert to very low levels it may take such subsidies to keep drilling,” Hofmeister added. He also pointed out that small and independent companies need the subsidies at all times: “Independent companies operate under different economic parameters and generally don’t have the resilience and a big expensive well that they can depreciate quickly.” To that end,Markey’s legislation, which is co-sponsored by other House Democrats including Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., excludes small independent companies. Yet Hofmeister said that proposal would be illegal since it targets specific companies over others. “I think that’s discriminatory,” he said. “It’s a much more complicated subject. Any bill that is discriminatory against specific companies would be found to be illegal.” Hofmeister made headlines earlier this month when he predicted gasoline prices could reach $5 by 2012. His prediction is only getting gloomier in light of heightened unrest in Egypt and President Obama’s continued push for what Hofmeister sees as a backwards offshore drilling policy. “If we stay on our current course in this country where we refuse to drill, we make it even more difficult to acquire new leases in this country coupled with international turmoil, the current path is only aggravating that and making it worse,” Hofmeister said. “We could reach that [$5 gasoline] sooner.”

To: Brumar89 who wrote (32275)	2/11/2011 2:07:23 PM
From: miraje	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 36921

...(LED) lights contained up to eight times the amount of lead allowed under California law... ...compact fluorescent bulbs, which contain dangerous mercury... ...incandescent bulbs, now being phased out under California law. Perhaps California should ban all light bulbs and return to living in caves with candles and bear skin rugs. Oh wait, bears are protected and candles emit carbon dioxide. The obvious solution is for California to just ban people. Period. Pristine environment and problem solved.