Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: koan who wrote (108184)	1/26/2012 9:47:48 AM
From: RetiredNow	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 149317

I woke up this morning and found that Obama did two things I liked: * He's proposed a minimum 30% tax for people who make more than $1 million (Go Obama!) * He's trying to lift demand for natural gas to replace other energy uses by proposing a tax break for natural gas vehicles (damned good idea because the US is natural gas rich and it pollutes less than oil and gasoline, as well as burns cleaner than coal, plus it has the added value of reducing our oil imports) ------------ High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. ft.com Obama seeks to lift natural gas demand By Ed Crooks in New York Plans to increase US demand for natural gas, including a new tax break for gas-fuelled trucks, are being unveiled by President Barack Obama on Thursday as part of the effort set out in his state of the union address to support “American-made energy”. The proposals, some of which will require legislation from a Congress that has been reluctant to endorse any of president Obama’s initiatives, include a new lease sale of offshore drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico, the second since the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010. The plans to strengthen gas demand follow a slump in the US gas price to a ten-year low last week. This was caused by the boom in reserves that were previously thought to be uneconomic, weak demand because of warmer weather than expected and the slow growth of the economy. Gas producing companies such as Chesapeake Energy and ConocoPhillips have been announcing plans to cut back their North American gas output. They are also hoping, however, that increased demand will help lift prices from their present levels of about $2.75 per million British thermal units. President Obama’s proposed tax break for trucks powered by gas or other alternative fuels would be worth half the difference in price between one of those trucks and a conventional diesel-powered vehicle. Among other proposals, he also wants a competitive grant programme to give funds to communities that come up with ways to break down the barriers to greater use of natural gas, support for investment in infrastructure such as filling stations and help for municipalities to switch to gas for their buses and trucks. With US crude oil at about $100 a barrel, gas is a much cheaper alternative. However, the growth of vehicles using natural gas as fuel has been restricted by the lack of infrastructure such as filling stations to give drivers the confidence that they will be able to refuel when they need to. President Obama will be making his speech at a UPS depot in Las Vegas, which has trucks powered by liquefied natural gas (super cooled to minus 162 degrees centigrade) in its fleet. UPS had been reluctant to deploy LNG-powered trucks in that area, the administration says, because of the lack of infrastructure, but the company was able to switch to gas after a filling station was opened in the city, thanks in part to help from the president’s 2009 stimulus package. Mr Obama has been stressing the value of US gas production in terms of job creation and the environmental benefits of burning gas rather than coal to generate power. The substitution of gas for oil in transport could help US energy security, given that oil imports are still running at almost 9m barrels a day.