I supposed the clinical thing to do would be to calculate cost vs. environmental impact and come up with a nice squeaky green conclusion, but recently my conclusions seem to be made more out a belief that our open ("free" doesn't really apply) market for energy needs to be placed in check by the only force that can bring change.

Calculated, individual consumer choices multiplied by millions of people.

My friend Matt has a company car with paid gas for personal use. He said to me today, "I don't care if the gas is free - I just want to use my motorcycle because it doesn't use (uses half) gas." In 2004, he purchased (which he can't sell now) a Chevy Suburban that gets 15 mpg and never considered the price of gas.

My neighbor Chuck's new full-sized pickup is now collecting dirt around the wheels for sometimes two weeks at a time. He drives a 115 mpg scooter to work.

My retired neighbor on a fixed budget told me today, "I am going to hold on to my economic stimulus check so i can pay for fuel oil this Winter" A tax money give-a-way to spark the economy, funneled into the oil machine that is squeezing the economy in the first place.

We are entering the uncharted free market waters. Huge global energy monopolies that use raw materials that are irresistible to investors and tied to everything as a reason to make it more expensive. We can't regulate it, tax it or force it to do anything. The concept of oil just got too big in business and in our hearts.

The only force that can save the world from suicidal greed; the consumer stands alone with a choice to become super hero or victim.

I like the electric lawn mower more than the gas, simply because it does not use gas. It's two gallons of gasoline that went unsold this Summer.

Posted in All posts from the start Electric History Oil Machine/politics Tax incentives

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Big Oil makes big profit and pays big taxes.

Some of the presidential candidates are screaming for a windfall profit tax on oil companies.

From 2003 to 2007, Exxon's earnings grew by 89%, while income taxes grew by 170%. Much of that growth was overseas. Exxon paid $9.3 billion in worldwide income taxes in the first quarter of 2008, representing a 49% tax rate on its gross income of $20.2 billion.

businessweek.com

In related news, When Congress passed the 2007 energy bill in December, it kept tax credits for oil and gas companies while allowing those for wind and solar power to expire this year.

The evil "big oil" equation is more than a few companies being evil profit mongers. It is about a profit stream that has developed that feeds things like dividends, commodities, and retirement accounts via 401-K and pension investments.

It's a tidal wave of money blasting it's way through Capitalism. It's too much of one thing, one force, one method of thinking; tunnel vision blinded by rows of zeros after the $.

Posted in All posts from the start Oil Machine/politics Tax incentives

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With gasoline prices hitting a new high every day, the presidential candidates have been seasoning their speeches with blame and Band-Aids.

Barack Obama said that Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and presumptive Republican nominee John McCain are part of a Washington establishment that has failed to stand up to oil companies. McCain and the Republican National Committee are accusing Obama of flip-flopping on the idea of suspending the federal gas tax to help consumers. And Clinton is bashing Obama for voting for an energy bill that included tax breaks for oil companies. (Boston Globe)

It's tempting in an election year to appear to be cutting taxes, but in reality the 18 cents of tax that would be withheld cuts money from highway projects and mass transit. If anything, we should funnel all that money into mass transit and away from highways during the "gas tax holiday" so we can actually dig ourselves out of this hole. The US consumer has been enjoying a holiday from the real cost of oil dependence for some time.

A summertime reprieve from the gas tax will only promote consumption and delay the inevitable adoption of fuel efficiency by consumers. Adding to our own consumption is the growth by developing nations which continue to gobble oil even during the proposed US holiday.

The price of gas will probably increase more than 18 cents over the Summer, adding to the pointlessness when we get hit in the fall with the tax again at the start of the heating season.

Borrowing time from debt will not slow down the crisis, only reduce the tools needed to save ourselves. The only thing i can think of that would be more silly would be to give every person in the United States $600 to help stimulate an economy built on bad fundamentals, paid for by their own tax dollars that have disappeared into a $9,3336.468,539,220 national debt.

Posted in All posts from the start Oil Machine/politics Tax incentives

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The York County Chamber of Commerce has studied I-83 and is presenting it's findings in a three part series in their Watchdog e-newsletter.
Some points:

--Highway construction costs are up 43%
--Would you be willing to support an increase in the gas tax, if it meant improved capacity on our highways?
--IRS hikes 2008 commuter benefit tax incentive
As more workers factor the price of their commute into their job choices, more employers are looking for ways to help employees cut their commuting costs. The IRS is helping by increasing to $115 per month the amount that can be set aside in a worker's qualified, tax-free transportation fringe benefit plan.

It seems odd that federal taxpayer dollars are used to enhance urban sprawl and congestion while we search for new revenue to build them bigger... fight air pollution and try to find ways to reduce dependency on foreign oil as the price of oil steadily rises.

Some cities, like Baltimore, are promoting work in your neighborhood programs to keep people from commuting.

So there could be a larger gas tax to help pay for larger highways that taxpayers fund demand by helping commuters make employment "choices" to drive further from their workplace. Sounds like an increasingly expensive cycle with no end in sight.

Posted in All posts from the start Oil Machine/politics Tax incentives

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A lesson in environmentalism

The United States economy was built on production and consumption. Our fabric was woven from the Henry Ford concept; if you pay people a decent wage future consumers can afford to buy the products they produce.

Production increased, consumption increased; a loving relationship that lasted for decades. Business expanded searching for new markets in a global economy fed by communication and transportation. Business capitalized on new markets, now possible to exploit, polarizing labor and consumption in the United States.

Two key indicators in the past week indicated a tipping point:

1. A drop in the nonmanufacturing index caused turmoil in the markets because production has been dropping for years. wsj.com
During this decade things like banks and restaurants have come to make up 2/3 of our economy. The focus of our economy has moved from producing to interacting with people and serving customer rather than transforming physical goods. We don't make anything anymore. When you serve, you loose the ability to create and innovate. You also loose the connection between what is created and the costs and consequences of creation.

2. The government/consumer money shot. Politicians of both parties want to avert recession with a quick cash give-a-way so people can buy. The irony of which is paid for by consumer tax dollars or taxed on the debt of future generations by further ballooning the federal deficit. Living on debt, without backing, got us into this mess in the first place. A panic gesture, continuing to throw Band-Aids on a psychotic pyramid scheme. Throwing twigs on a dying fire, this is a defining moment of our economy.

I am sitting here staring at my screen as the sun comes up showering golden rays across my screen... thinking of a conclusion. Maybe the sunrise is my conclusion.

In a post consum(er)ption era, the consumer is the solution. We hold the greatest numbers and define the greatest change of behavior. The beauty of Democracy coupled to Capitalism is that even in failure we have been handed the tools to fix it.

Posted in All posts from the start Environment History Oil Machine/politics Tax incentives

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You really can't fault someone from Baltimore for seeking a better quality of life by buying a house here in York and commuting to Baltimore. Real estate prices, taxes and a high cost for life that come with high population densities in urban areas like Baltimore has pushed people into their cars and up Interstate 83.

Unfortunately, this consumes a massive amount of gasoline, clogs roads and creates bedroom communities that rob both Baltimore, York and in the end the commuter of a fully functioning life as they seek to survive in an never ending spiral of costs.

Once in a land long, long ago. cities like York were built up around factories. People walked to work, or took electric trolleys. They went to churches, pubs and stores in their community and were able to invest the time spent commuting into their children and neighborhoods. When your whole life is your community, you have an intense interest in preserving it's whole.

Baltimore City will contribute $1,000 per employee, which will be matched by over 85 participating employers. Employees will be required to contribute a minimum of $1,000 cash toward the purchase of their home. It's the idea of getting people back to living where they work.

livebaltimore.com/hb/inc/lnyw/

Posted in All posts from the start Public Transportation Tax incentives

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A federal income-tax credit on the Honda Civic Hybrid will drop to $1,050 on January 1, down from $2,100 today.

The law limits the biggest credits to roughly the first 60,000 hybrids that each carmaker sells providing an incentive for domestic manufactures as the program matures. Tax credits have already phased out on hybrids from Toyota and Lexus brand.
bostonherald.com/business

Posted in All posts from the start Hybrid Tax incentives

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Clean diesel technology offers consumers a viable alternative to gasoline using technology that has already evolved and can be further tweaked. It is fuel with an entrenched fuel infrastructure that can be substituted with bio-fuels as inventiveness blossoms.

GEO2 Technologies is one of the flowers bearing fruit by developing a ceramic composite material for use as catalyst support substrates and particulate filters for diesel engines. According to their website, the technology can reduce manufactures cost by 30% with a product that offers low back pressure and a high filtering capacity.

About half of the vehicles in Europe are diesel while the technology in the U.S. stands at about 2%. A diesel engine is about 20% more efficient than a gasoline engine. Diesel ,gallon for gallon, creates more energy.

Source:U.S. Gov. Energy Infromation

There still a cost consideration to the consumer for running gasoline over petroleum diesel which is quite substantial in some parts of the country. If there is a 45 cent per gallon cost difference between each fuel as it often is here in York, Pennsylvania, a 20% gain in efficiency is quickly eroded. There are more taxes paid at the pump for diesel, which is an attempt to extract over-the-road charges for trucking. However, the diesel will probably be simpler, cheaper and easier to maintain in a high mileage vehicle than a gasoline hybrid.

Unlike corn based ethanol production (that places pressure on food stock with a highly taxpayer subsidized fuel that takes great amounts of energy to produce a fuel that is less efficient than fossil fuels), increasing clean diesel production isn't diverting a commodity jacking up prices/inflation for consumers.

If you need more diesel, you will need less gasoline the equation on the equity market actually decreases. As a bonus the cars running diesel take 20% less fuel so less crude is needed and we become less energy dependent.

While many countries have adopted diesel as their dominant fuel due to the necessity of historically overall high energy prices, the U.S. has historically enjoyed cheap gasoline and marginalized diesel via marketing and tax structure as a working fuel (for trucks/trains/farm).

The biggest hurdle to drawing in clean diesel technology as one of our short-term Band-Aid energy solutions will be overcoming a long standing perception by consumers and bureaucrats that this is a truck fuel and shouldn't be part of the equation. Propelling an idea that doesn't create large profits for a large market force and only may benefit the consumer in the short-term isn't a market motivator.

Posted in All posts from the start Diesel Innovation Tax incentives

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Change behavior by taking your money

New York City is toying with the idea of charging cars $8 and trucks $21 to enter Manhattan's business district, other U.S. cities are also toying with the idea.

Other ideas include dropping subway bus/fares, odd/even license plates, increasing other tolls into the city and lowering fees for energy efficient trucks. wcbs/tv

Voluntary conservation measures have a long standing history of not working in the United States. It usually takes financial penalty to change behavior Even in the case of high gas prices, the consumption rate continues to climb.

It is the nature of Americans to strive to "profit" against each other and nature - size and level of consumption are the marks of success. The independence of stretching out in our own automobile has become part of our identity. At some point the penalty, either by shortage or cost will change behavior.

Posted in All posts from the start Innovation Public Transportation Tax incentives

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Section 45 of the tax code calls for tax credits for electricity produced from certain renewable resources, including poultry waste, as well as wood shavings, straw, rice hulls and other bedding material for the disposition of manure. The rational is that it is better to burn it than let it seep into the ground water even though the EPA already requires chicken farmers to take actions regarding waste disposal.

This and others like clean-coal tax credit, which promotes coal over cleaner energies is known as a windfall by lobbyists, is enacted by legislatures and paid for by consumers.

With the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit, a federal tax credit that took effect in 2005, when you buy E10 at the pump (which is 10 percent ethanol), the company that blended the fuel is getting a tax credit of 5 cents for every gallon you buy.

Add all the corn and ethanol subsidies up, according to the International Institute for Sustainable Development, and you have subsidies approaching $1.40 per gallon of ethanol.

Posted in All posts from the start Ethanol Oil Machine/politics Tax incentives

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