Republican Senators are proposing to give every American a $100 rebate check to offset the high costs of gas.
Gosh, they’re great for our wallets, aren’t they?
Oh….only one problem: The energy bill which contains that proposal also would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil drilling. You know — the rape-the-environment plan that has been defeated several times already.
Motherfuckers.
Or, gee, maybe we could ask why the oil companies were given 14.5 BILLION dollars in tax breaks in August 2005, and are now posting record profits? (not costs….not income….PROFITS.)
Yeah, Exxon posted $89 Billion in profits in the 1st quarter.
I think that what should actually come to pass is a direct windfall profits tax that is then distributed to taxpayers.
I mean, how many fucking billion dollars is enough?
D.
Sorry to nitpick, but they posted $8.4 billion in profit off $88.98 billion in revenue for the quarter.
Nitpick away, I was quoting what I had heard reported on NPR this morning from memory, as opposed to double checking. It is my memory that they called it profit, not revenue.
D.
Hey, we have the best govt. that oil money can buy.
*grumbles*
Every time I see a letter in the paper from some freakazoid who says “all we need to do is open up ANWR and we’d be fine” I want to go to their house and shake them and say “WTF is wrong with you that you think that a year and a half’s worth of our current consumption, taken out of the ground over the next 30, is going to make a damned bit of difference, you mouth-breathing cave dweller.”
God those people make me mad.
This has been making a lot of news over at Google News, with most of the articles keeping the news of the tax break-ANWR relationship in the story. Hopefully a lot of people will realize and care with what this means.
Things like this make me reconsider all the steps I’m taking to reduce my energy consumption, because I hate pissing into the wind. Of course, then I engage my brain again and just do it anyway.
I don’t understand why everyone is against ANWR drilling. If you know anything about this stuff (and I do environmental work for a living) there is little to no damage to the environment. These things are so tightly regulated that even if there is a spill, it is cleaned up quickly and doesn’t harm much of anything. But most people only see the pictures of ducks covered with oil, and have knee-jerk reactions saying all oil drilling is bad.
But, even if this drilling is allowed, it will not affect the price at the pump at all. In case you weren’t aware of it, at least 50 cents per gallon, and often more than that, is state taxes.