Widem

Whats funny to me is that Bush is twice as popular as congress!

Congressional Approval Hits Record-Low 14%

Bush Quarterly Average Establishes New Low: 29%

What made me think of this was Nancy Pelosi called Bush a "total failure" as president. Then ultimately stated he was the reason for everything she wanted to state was wrong with the country. This was in response to Bush saying that offshore drilling was being held up by congress and theres only 26 legislative days left so they better get off their asses and do something.

My point being Nancy probably needs to smell her own shit b/c if she pegs Bush as a total failure, the American people think that she is twice as much of a total failure, which as far as I know is mathematicaly impossible.

stivan

As much as the idea of off shore drilling is OK.. it really is not a long term solution to our problems. I agree with the congress and they should definately stop it. Besides, this whole thing sounds fishy to begin with - Let's not forget that our president and his buddy the VP are big oil assholes.

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"The optomist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; the pessimist fears this is true."
-James Branch Cabell

Cracatoa

Cheney perhaps, but Bush sold his oil company years and years ago.

And btw, it wouldn't matter anyhow. Texas, where Bush did own an oil company, reserves all of its own rights to all of its natural resources. Part of their agreement to join the union back in the 1830s.


The real story here is how Congress has had the ban in place for 30 years now and even if they do remove it, it is highly unlikely that many states other than perhaps Florida will even allow it, cause it ultimately will be their decision. Far as I know, only Florida's government is ok with it.

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Lucan_Dlere.Kraks/Krakatoa/Contagen/Sorquist/Amend/Nights/Merdur/Diox/Bruuna/Dazzel
Able to leap large raids in a single bound.

stivan

Fair enough - the whole thing still sounds really fishy to me. Right now we don't need oil companies to start pumping oil outside of our borders - Like that will really make a difference - People seem to forget that it costs more to do anything on the US territory and to have something like this up in running would take years. The current prices are here to stay for a while.

What we really need is people to get innovative and come up with better solutions.

__________________

"The optomist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; the pessimist fears this is true."
-James Branch Cabell

Deson

And what do you do while waiting for currently non-existent better solutions?

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Widem

No entity can make long term success without a short term plan. Why is it the american people think that just because you ease up on oil, you cant research into alternative fuels?

I see this as a win/win situation. The states that want the tax revenues can vote to do what they want. Imagine that...states that are united together in a federation being able to make their own decisions...

Supply can increase sooner rather than later at no cost to the federal government who can then in turn spend all their cash on renewable energy reseach.

Both a long and short term plan.

EDIT - IMO

Immediate - Gas Tax Holiday (Definately not sustainable which is why its only a bridge to your longer term plans)

1-2 year plan - Increase property taxes on vehicles beow a certain MPG as long as they are not owned by a legal business entity. IE rednecks with trucks. In addition, tax incentives for owning hybrid vehicles and very high mpg vehicles. Possibly even governemtn financing to help retrofit cars.

3-5 year plan - refineries increase in volume and efficiency increasing supply of oil.

10+ year - hopefully be phasing out slowly oil by alternative and renewable energies that we have found to be cost effective.

All os this stuff needs to be done now.

stivan

Work on helping our economy - which is one of the main reasons why we are seeing such high gas prices right now.

__________________

"The optomist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; the pessimist fears this is true."
-James Branch Cabell

Widem

you have this backwards....high gas prices sapping purchasing power is hurting the economy.

stivan

yes but the gas prices starting to rise was a result of our economy getting worse... and now we are just getting this snowball effect.

__________________

"The optomist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; the pessimist fears this is true."
-James Branch Cabell

Cracatoa

Couldn't agree with that last statement more....however, its PEOPLE, not governments, we need to count on. Can you name a successful government project over the last 100 years other than the national highway system, whose success is marginal at best?

A free, open market will force innovation. Always has worked great for us. As long as we remember that, we'll be fine. Just gotta keep government from fucking things up too badly between now and then.

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Lucan_Dlere.Kraks/Krakatoa/Contagen/Sorquist/Amend/Nights/Merdur/Diox/Bruuna/Dazzel
Able to leap large raids in a single bound.