Some people have justly criticized Barack Obama for promising a lot and offering few details as to how he might bring his promises to fruition. In a speech August 4th., Obama laid out an energy policy with at least some details. Here’s a summary:
- For a short term and temporary solution to the problem of high petroleum prices and to give some relief to American automobile drivers, Obama proposes releasing about 70 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. This would have only a limited and short-term impact on gasoline prices, but if it were done immediately, in might help bring down prices at the pump for the remainder of the summer.
- Obama said that, as President, he would consider allowing some off-shore drilling if it was included as a part of a comprehensive energy policy. This is a change in his views. In the past Obama has been dead set against off-shore drilling. He also urged oil companies to begin drilling in oil leases they already posses, but have not developed.
- For the long term, Obama wants to invest $150 billion, over the next 10 years, in a program to develop energy efficient automobiles and alternative non-fossil fuels, with the ambitious goal of totally eliminating our need to import Middle Eastern oil.
Senator McCain wants to make off-shore drilling a major part of his energy plan, and perhaps, some off-shore drilling will be necessary. If so, we should do it. It should be noted, however, that if drilling started today, it would be somewhere around 2015 before any benefit will be felt. In addition, any increase in oil supply provided by off-shore drilling would likely only lower the price for a barrel of oil by a few dollars, and result in a few cents off a gallon of gas.
Basically, there is very little we can do about energy costs, in the short term. As a nation, we have known this problem was coming for 40 years or longer. Now that it is here, there is little we can do except buckle down for the long term and fix it. That’s where Obama’s proposal to make us totally free of Middle Eastern oil in ten years comes in. It would be a most difficult task, but I believe that the nation that won World War II, sent men to the moon, built the greatest democracy the world has ever seen, and developed the most powerful economy on the planet can do it. We can develop alternative fuels. We can build effective electric automobiles. Obama says we should have a million electric automobiles on the road before his presidency is finished. We can develop nuclear power. We can get electricity from wind, solar, and geothermal sources. The technology for these things is already available. All we have to do is to make up our minds and do it.
Imagine what our nation would be like if we eliminated all the importation of Middle Eastern oil. There would be no need, whatever, to fight in Iraq. That alone would save is about $12 billion a month. In addition, we send about $1.2 billion (this is a ballpark figure. Getting an exact figure is difficult) each day to the Middle East for oil. So, weaning our nation from the use of Middle East oil would save us approximately $600 billion yearly.
Once we become energy self sufficient, you will see the world change. This goal alone is enough to convince me that Obama is the person we want to guide our nation for the next several years.
Bob, great information and
Bob, great information and it makes sense to me.
Hello Colts Fan. thanks
Hello Colts Fan. thanks for the comment.
I'm not a fan of T. Boone
I'm not a fan of T. Boone Pickens but I do agree with him when he says that we can't drill our way out of this problem. It will take nearly as long to see the fruit of new drilling as it will to develope an alternative means to get the juice we need. I agree that some additional drilling will help down the road and will fill the gap at some point in the future but I also think the only REAL way out of this problem is innovation and leaving fossil fuel behind.
I also have to say that as a recipient of the Bush tax breaks I don't cherish the idea of losing it but I have a child who, so far, has a $9 Trillion debt to figure out how to pay. I am willing to give up my meager tax break to get things turned around. More people should feel the same if they have young kids. This needs solved before the dollar is worthless and the economy crashes completely. Printing more money and borrowing a Trillion dollars from China are not my idea of wise leadership. China owns enough of our debt that if they began dumping it, it would kill us. Let us not forget they are communists and let us not forget that since we are greatly responsible for their rapid growth that they are competing for the same fossil fuels we are buying. More oil will likely NOT reduce it's price by very much from this point forward.
Bob, thanks for the good
Bob, thanks for the good read.
Elwoodguy, very well said and welcome to AFP! :)
Thank you. It's nice to be
Thank you. It's nice to be here.
Hello Mak and Elwoodguy
Hello Mak and Elwoodguy thanks for the comments.
I don't know how much of a tax cut you received from the Bush cuts, but unless you are making over $200,000 yearly, you did not get very much. Obama wants to leave the Bush tax cuts in place for those whose incomes are on the lower end of those who received tax cuts (I don't recall the exact figure). He wants to eliminate the Bush tax cuts that effected people making $200,000 and higher and those that went to corporations.
Unless you make over around
Unless you make over around $130-150K, you are paying more. There are more ways to be taxed than through Income Tax. You pay more for items because they are no longer being funded in the Bush administration. But, rest assured, not as much has he would have liked to have driven it home (deeper)!
Life only goes around once, have fun and love, people. -VicNormal
I do not make over $200K but
I do not make over $200K but I dream about that. I do, however, find myself in a high enough tax bracket that some of my income is subject to that break. My accountant estimates that I'll lose about a grand if those breaks are rolled back. If it means the debt is reduced or healthcare is more affordable for those without it then I'm for it.
For comparison purposes,
For comparison purposes, someone in the $800-1,000k area would have a rollback of about $80,000 a year ~ every year. The value of my home, each and every year. Money they spend on a yacht and another dacha, hmmmmmmm! You would fall in the tax area that Obama would not only not roll back, but increase. Wow! The people that have not seen a small, much less significant improvement in their life style like the continuous increase for the wealthy, in over twenty+ years. Even Reagan wasn't this bad on the middle class!
Life only goes around once, have fun and love, people. -VicNormal
What a great tshirt Vic!
What a great tshirt Vic!
Bush: He Makes You Wish Reagan Would Come Back