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To satisfy my curiosity: Are any writers on this blog registered Republicans?

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Bush is a lying sack of shit...what an embarrassment to the position of the president...and even worse...to the human race.

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It's beginning to look like we elected the wrong president. This one Does what the car companies tell him and the oil companies have him in their back pocket. From watching "An Inconvenient Truth" Al Gore would have made a much better president in 2000.

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Not sure what point you are trying to make. While I believe that elimination of tax breaks is good policy (oil companies have all the incentive they need to explore for oil), I also understand that if there is any impact from the elimination of tax breaks, it would be higher prices. How does making oil companies pay more taxes have a positive impact on gas prices?

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Bush is just a shill for Big Oil - in addition to being one of the worst liars in the history of U.S. Presidents.

Wait until he gets out of office and collects millions and millions of dollars from his corporate sponsors.

In a just world, he should go to prison.

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"I also understand that if there is any impact from the elimination of tax breaks, it would be higher prices. How does making oil companies pay more taxes have a positive impact on gas prices?"

It doesn't necessarily but that isn't the point. It is about tax fairness and by eliminating these tax credits you are decreasing the tax burden on others who deserve a break.

It is also about what policies we need for the nation for our long term security. Making gas cheaper than it would be under normal market conditions is just delaying the necessary weaning process we must make.

I think you could justify tax breaks for renewables for a variety of reasons that would not apply to fossil fuels.

Preferential treatment for any industry or product has to be heavily srcutinized and should demonstrate that it is for the common good and not small segments of our population, e.g. Exxon/Mobil shareholders.

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It takes an idiot like bush to put this country in debt, and then give tax breaks to the oil companies.
Man, the things I would like to say. But in the spirit of keeping ABG a clean site, I will leave it for some other time on some other site.

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Bush is a moron. He could care less about working people who can't afford to drive to work. This shows how out of touch the man is.

And yes, I AM a registered Republican in Southern Virginia, only I'm tired of incompetence, and seeing co workers who are reservists on 3rd month tour of duty, whose families pay the price. Not all Republicans support this guy you know.

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> To satisfy my curiosity: Are any writers on
> this blog registered Republicans?

"There's one in the spotlight he don't look right to me, put him up against the wall."

Hubris is the downfall of the vain and virtuous impulse alike.

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Perhaps it's worth pointing out that the price of oil is currently rising sharply mostly because the US dollar is getting weaker by the day. Unless that trend reverses soon - unlikely - gas prices could easily reach $4 by the summer unless demand volume drops sharply - also unlikely, consumers aren't going to move house, change jobs or switch to more fuel-efficient cars in a hurry.

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Predicting $4 a gallon? Predictions are like armpits. I've never seen a good track record for people predicting which way oil will go.

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"If we're worried about becoming dependent" on foreign oil??? That's an odd IF. We're dependent, Mr President.

Watching this video scares me.

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SHHHHHHHHH! You're not suppose to talk about $4.00 a gallon gas. See, now were going to a have $4.00 a gallon gas because you brought it up. Nice reasoning W.

By the way, in the Bay Area, the land of Brei AND cheese, regular gas is well over $4.00.

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'Angel is next'

Bush is an imbecile, if the congress won't impeach him, he will be arrested/tried/convicted/executed for treason when his term is up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gldETRlhiXk&e

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There is some excellent discussion in some of the posts to which I want to respond.

Before I start, let me restate that rollback of the tax breaks doesn’t bother me in the least. What I don’t understand is the anger directed towards the oil companies. I like to understand both sides of the issue or the “big picture” on issues, and what I see being discussed here (with some notable exceptions) is a very narrow (and extremely negative) view of the issue.

We all know that Exxon Mobil earned $40 billion in profits last year, but I think to really discuss this, we need to look at the overall financial position of the company. Here are two links that give the annual Income Statement for 2007 http://finance.google.com/finance?fstype=ba&q=XOM and for the previous four quarters (not the full 2007 statement) http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=XOM

As you can see, Exxon Mobil generated $404 in revenue, of which $70.5 billion was income before tax. Exxon paid $29.9 billion in taxes and earned $40.6 billion of net income. Put another way, Exxon’s net income was about 10% of revenue and 42% of its gross profits were paid as taxes.

Here are some specific points or questions:

“It doesn't necessarily but that isn't the point. It is about tax fairness and by eliminating these tax credits you are decreasing the tax burden on others who deserve a break” and “Preferential treatment for any industry or product has to be heavily srcutinized and should demonstrate that it is for the common good and not small segments of our population, e.g. Exxon/Mobil shareholders”

Given that Exxon Mobil is paying 42% of its gross profits as taxes, do you think that they are getting an unfair tax break? Is it fair to increase their tax burden to give others a tax break? (Are renewable energy providers bearing a higher tax burden than 42%?)

“I think you could justify tax breaks for renewables for a variety of reasons that would not apply to fossil fuels.”

Agreed.

“Perhaps it's worth pointing out that the price of oil is currently rising sharply mostly because the US dollar is getting weaker by the day.” And “It is also about what policies we need for the nation for our long term security. Making gas cheaper than it would be under normal market conditions is just delaying the necessary weaning process we must make.”

IMHO gas prices are high because of the weak dollar and growing demand for oil which is primarily being driving by economic growth in China and India. I’m not interested in making gas cheaper, I’m concerned about managing the economic disruption as we go through the weaning process. I think that demonizing the oil companies does nothing in terms of developing sound energy policies for our country. I think the Democratic leadership in Congress is spending too much time and energy scape goating oil companies, rather than coming up with substantive energy policies that will ease the transition to a post-carbon energy world.

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Tina said "in a perfect world he (the president)would go to prison."
In a perfect world and he were the leader of any company the authorities would barge into his office and take him away in hand cuffs. As a Texan (as is Mr.Bush) I'd pay a fortune to see him taken out of the oval office in hand cuffs.

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"Given that Exxon Mobil is paying 42% of its gross profits as taxes, do you think that they are getting an unfair tax break? Is it fair to increase their tax burden to give others a tax break? (Are renewable energy providers bearing a higher tax burden than 42%?)"

Do renewable energy providers get the tax incentives that E-M et al receive? What do you think is a reasonable amount of tax for the most profitable corporation in the history of the world?

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Worst President Ever!

Yes, Al Gore would have been a better president, so would John McCain or John Kerry. Heck, even Jimmy Carter did a better job on the economy and energy than Bush.

Unfortunately, incompetence isn't an inpeachable offense.

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Curt: BULLSHIT. I wanted to say male bovine fecal matter, but the boldness of your lie is more than I will bear. EXXON pays nowhere near 42% of it's gross in taxes. That is a lie. I have several ideas where you got that figure and they all industry serving lies. Lies.Lies.Lies.Lies.Lies.Lies.Lies.Lies.Lies.Lies. to the power of ten lies.

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jeff d- "I also understand that if there is any impact from the elimination of tax breaks, it would be higher prices. How does making oil companies pay more taxes have a positive impact on gas prices?"
You need to understand they are talking about a national energy bill. The democrats want to PAY FOR more green incentives by taking away oil incentives. That "PAY FOR" is important.
"IMHO gas prices are high because of the weak dollar and growing demand for oil which is primarily being driving by economic growth in China and India."
The weak dollar is driven by 2 things-
1-trade deficit 2-budget deficit
Getting rid of oil incentives helps both of those things and increases jobs in the U.S.

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