Capitalist scum strikes back
Dan responded to my recent post on global warming with this flaming post: Stop it with the hippy propoganda. I should probably be packing right now but I feel the need to respond to his unwavering faith that the government is doing a 'stellar job' protecting our environment from big-oil.
My recent posts have been written to stir some thought and research into the effectiveness of the Energy Policy Act of July 2005. In this I have been successfull. Dan did some research and came up with some new information which I was unfamiliar with. One thing I didn't know is that the $2.8 billion in tax breaks for fossil fuel companies does not all go to petroleum companies. However he says that none of it goes to petroleum fuel companies. The Washington Post says otherwise:
Dan continues by pointing out that congress is doing something. The state of California is imposing their own restrictions on vehicle emmisions. However, I am talking about federal regulations on efficiency, not emmisions.
Dan brings up the concessions the act makes to alternative fuel sources, and maybe I wasn't fair to exclude them from my rant. However, I feel that these sections of the act are not robust enough to sufficiently reduce our oil dependance. You can read the original doc here.
Where the act really fails is that it doesn't increase the restrictions on fuel efficiency in motor vehicles. Increasing our fuel efficiency is the simplest way to reduce the amount we use. I mention this issue in my last post: Help curb oil addiction. Once again I urge congress to increase standards of fuel efficiency for cars, light trucks and to investigate enforcing similar restrictions on heavy trucks. This is the most immediate, effective and long-term way to use existing and emerging technology to reduce our use of fossil fuels.
My recent posts have been written to stir some thought and research into the effectiveness of the Energy Policy Act of July 2005. In this I have been successfull. Dan did some research and came up with some new information which I was unfamiliar with. One thing I didn't know is that the $2.8 billion in tax breaks for fossil fuel companies does not all go to petroleum companies. However he says that none of it goes to petroleum fuel companies. The Washington Post says otherwise:
The petroleum industry got new incentives to drill in the Gulf of Mexico -- as if $60-a-barrel oil wasn't enough of an incentive. The already-subsidized ethanol industry got a federal mandate that will nearly double its output by 2012 -- as well as new subsidies to develop ethanol from other sources.In fact, only $200 million of the $2.8 billion in tax breaks for fossil fuels actually goes to clean-coal burning companies. The same article continues to explain how the Act reduces environmental restrictions on the petroleum companies:
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) also managed to insert at least $500 million in subsidies over a 10-year period -- with the option to double the amount -- for research into deep-water oil and gas drilling, a grant that many lawmakers expect to go to the Texas Energy Center in DeLay's home town of Sugar Land.
[The act] exempts oil and gas companies from Safe Drinking Water Act requirements when they inject fluids -- including some carcinogens -- into the earth at high pressure, a process known as hydraulic fracturing.
Lawmakers also authorized seismic blasting in sensitive marine areas to gauge offshore oil reserves -- despite a moratorium on drilling in many of those areas. And the bill will exempt petroleum well pads from storm-water regulations under the Clean Water Act.
Dan continues by pointing out that congress is doing something. The state of California is imposing their own restrictions on vehicle emmisions. However, I am talking about federal regulations on efficiency, not emmisions.
Dan brings up the concessions the act makes to alternative fuel sources, and maybe I wasn't fair to exclude them from my rant. However, I feel that these sections of the act are not robust enough to sufficiently reduce our oil dependance. You can read the original doc here.
Where the act really fails is that it doesn't increase the restrictions on fuel efficiency in motor vehicles. Increasing our fuel efficiency is the simplest way to reduce the amount we use. I mention this issue in my last post: Help curb oil addiction. Once again I urge congress to increase standards of fuel efficiency for cars, light trucks and to investigate enforcing similar restrictions on heavy trucks. This is the most immediate, effective and long-term way to use existing and emerging technology to reduce our use of fossil fuels.
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1 Comments:
That's pretty fucked.. not too surprising though. this is exactly what I was trying to say in my original post, that we can't even begin to try fixing the government's approach to oil. we need to figure out how to decrease demand by making us less dependent. It's a pretty ill situation.
I have one big problem with your post though - the title. Coming from a communist country, I can tell you that the other side of the spectrum is WAY WAY WAY WAY more corrupt than anything you'll see here. Within about 20 years of communist rule, the government polluted the country I came from so bad, there were no fish in the streams, no animals in the forests, just factories EVERYWHERE. The fact that the US even HAS laws to prevent companies from messing up the environemnt is a huge step - the excemptions suck, but the fact that they have to exist is also a good sign.
And for bonus marks, if you were to post this type of article in a communist country, you'd be in a political prison right now (for life) and your page would no longer exist. Freedom of expression that we have is really priceless. The fact that we're having this discussion in the first place is pretty damn cool if you ask me..
Capitalists aren't scum, people are. At least here you know who the scum are and what they're up to.
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