Lex Luz

Does Big Oil's Apathy Justify Proposals to Tax Windfall Profits?

It strikes me as absurd to continue tax and subsidy policies that encourage total dependence on oil - a commodity that is clearly finite in supply - and it strikes me as equally absurd to try to cover up that fundamental policy framework or mindset with talk of a "windfall profits tax" however prettily dressed up it may be. As a nation, we are not yet willing to confront the fundamental issue here: in the very real world of the future, oil production can't possibly keep up with demand. We can argue all we want about the timeframe, but the end-game is exactly the same every time: we're out of oil.

Given that our economy, our security, our lifestyle, and in fact our very survival is 100% dependent on oil, and given that we're out of oil as a condition of the future, it strikes me that we had better get damned busy, damned fast, figuring out what comes AFTER oil. Yet ALL of our policies, ALL of our tax structures, ALL of our government spending are expressly and purposefully designed to keep us 100% dependent on the very thing that we need to wean ourselves off of.

We can paint all the frosting we want on this pile of horsesh*t, but that's never going to turn it into a cake. Much as I would love to see some sort of perfect capitalist world where the markets take care of all of this, that ain't gonna happen in a world where every economy, including the United States', is centrally planned. So it seems to me that we had better start constructing an energy policy that promotes vigorous domestic exploration & production of oil and that funnels some significant portion of that money into nuclear, solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, and other alternatives for power generation, aggressively subsidized development of alternative fuels for transportation, and a radical re-focusing of urban & regional infrastructure to promote effective, realistic mass-transit.

This is THE national security issue, today, tomorrow, and for the next two generations. If we don't tackle this, starting now, the next two generations are probably the last.

America's Energy Policy: Coming to Terms with Reality

Just as with the mortgage mess, there is more than enough responsibility for our energy problems to go around. People who screech that the "whacko environmentalists" or the "democratic left" or the "greedy oil companies" are the sole cause of our current ills are all equally moronic. WE ARE ALL TO BLAME, ALL OF US.

We can fix this problem if we confront it honestly. It's my opinion that we need to drill everywhere now, AND that we need to increase refining capacity as well as investing heavily in nuclear, wind, geothermal, solar, biomass, and other alternatives for electric generation.

More important than drilling everywhere, though, is recognizing that drilling for more oil doesn't solve anything - it merely pushes out the horizon of the end. Unless you are among those few who do not believe that oil is a finite resource, you must recognize that we will eventually use all of it (within economic limits; yes, I'm aware of those arguments). We must, must, MUST develop alternative fuels for transportation AND alternative infrastructures. These changes are going to demand culture change as well. That's not a left/right, positional argument, it's just what is.

The longer we scream and screech about partisan nonsense, the longer we remain paralyzed and the closer we get to total self-destruction. It's time to recognize that we have all contributed to the madness and that we can all work together to overcome it.