Cold here today! It'll only be around 60 degrees for a high temp today. WooHoo.
I have many streams of thought running around my little brain this morning. So many thoughts, so little cohesiveness. I could use a little ADD medication today!
So, the US Senate yesterday voted to do a one year windfall profits tax on Big Oil (cue up the dark and menacing theme music). This was the climax of the entertaining panel last week comprised of the CEO's of the 5 major oil producers for this country. The senators were trying their best to beat up on these men for running profitable companies for their stockholders. And, horror of horrors, they also pulled down large salaries and bonuses. Wow, you would think we lived in a free market system or something. Does anyone really think this new tax, on top of all the other taxes paid for oil, will only be a one year done deal? And, guess what this will do to the price of oil. Bring it down? Ha, good one! This stuff is always passed on to the consumer. Now that an election year is looming ahead and oil companies are making profits, the Senate is interested in policy on energy? Where have they been for 30 years? Not having the balls to do anything, that's where. Not a single refinery built or major renovations, for that matter. Refineries are at capacity. India and China are booming and gobbling up petroleum. No new drilling allowed in this country, oh no. Where were these concerned policy makers when the oil companies were getting $8 per barrel of oil and no one could make a living in the business? Did they care then? Only the Gulf of Mexico drilling activity keeps this economy going yet everyone is shocked, shocked I tell you, when two major hurricanes in a season knock rigs and refineries out. Imagine that.
And now we learn that energy producing wind machines are being scheduled for building in the Gulf. Why off the coast of Texas? Because the loudmouth hypocrites in Washington, screaming about the environment and global warming produced by fossil fuels, don't want the wind machines blocking the coastal view from the mansions on Cape Cod and the like. Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Walter Cronkite, to name a few that have petitioned to disallow the activity in their back yards. So be it. More jobs here.
I think we should hound the senators to produce a panel of entertainment executives making outlandish money off the backs of the working man who wants to see a movie or buy a dvd to watch at home. Let's examine those salaries and bonuses. Let's begin with Spielberg, Lucas, Geffin, et al. and look at the numbers. Or does the free market only apply to some industry and not all in this country?
1 comment:
I lost a long post listing annoyances the other night and the lack of understanding of the concept of "inventory profits", erroneously calling it "windfall profits" was high on the list. I know that Senators understand, or probably have someone on staff who can explain it to them, but instead they grandstand on the windfall profit idea, knowing it looks good to the little guy.
It takes 9 YEARS to get through the permitting process to build a refinery. Not to mention all the special coastlines that won't harbor an oil rig in sight--like Cape Cod AND Florida.
You are right, the two-faced-ness of Kerry, Kennedy and Cronkite, et al, is finger nails on the blackboard maddening.
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