I ususally don't agree with Congress, because they're generally stupid. (look at the steroid hearings) But this time they're on to something.
HR 5351 is a bill which funds a variety of renewable energy initiatives by taking away tax loopholes that were afforded to big oil companies. I
t just passed the House today, on a largely partisan vote, which means it's on it's way to the senate, and then onto the President, who would probably veto it. The Center for American Progress has a great article about it. Money quote:
One of these revenue-raising measures is eliminating the Internal Revenue Code section 199 deduction, which gives a subsidy for domestic oil and gas production. Its removal would cost Big Oil $1.4 billion annually over the next 10 years—a paltry sum considering that the big five oil companies made a combined profit of $123 billion in 2007 alone. ExxonMobil alone made a profit of over $77,000 per minute last year—more than the annual income of two-thirds of American families.
I ususally don't agree with Congress, because they're generally stupid. (look at the steroid hearings) But this time they're on to something.
HR 5351 is a bill which funds a variety of renewable energy initiatives by taking away tax loopholes that were afforded to big oil companies. It just passed the House today, on a largely partisan vote, which means it's on it's way to the senate, and then onto the President, who would probably veto it. The Center for American Progress has a great article about it. Money quote:
1. Use Less Water in Your Garden
About one-third of all residential water use goes toward lawns and gardens, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Unfortunately, much of this water is wasted through runoff, evaporation, overwatering, or inefficient landscape design.
By adopting some simple landscaping techniques you can create a beautiful lawn or garden that uses up to 60 percent less water, requires less fertilizer and pesticides, and saves you time and money.
2. Plant a Tree!
Did you know that trees improve water quality, reduce erosion, promote biodiversity, and absorb carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas)? The typical internal-combustion car produces 10,000 pounds of C02, so you would need to plant 200 trees to neutralize your carbon emissions in just one year. ZAP has set up a program to plant 200 trees for as little as $25. Learn more at http://www.zaptrees.org.
3. Use Alternative Transportation
Leaving your car at home can be a life-changing experience! You probably don’t realize it, but the average car can cost consumers thousands of dollars per year. Using a bicycle in place of your car can help you save money, get more exercise and have more fun enjoying the beautiful outdoors.
Carpooling or mass-transit may seem like an inconvenience, but when you consider the spare time you can use for other pursuits, the time it takes to find parking, or even the opportunity to socialize, alternative transportation can be a rewarding, exciting experience.
4. Cut Your Junk Mail
Did you know that each year millions of trees and billions of gallons of water are used to create junk mail that never gets recycled? There are several things you can do to reduce how much junk mail you receive.
Get off of national mailing lists by sending your name, address, and signature to:
Mail Preference Service
c/o Direct Marketing Association
P.O. Box 643
Carmel, NY 10512
When you subscribe to a magazine, buy something from a catalog or online store, or donate money, be sure to say: “Please do not rent or sell my name or address.” If you don’t want to receive catalogs or solicitations from the charitable organization, ask that your address not be added to any mailing lists.
Call your credit card companies and banks to make sure your address isn’t sold.
Say no to credit card offers by calling the credit reporting industry’s opt-out number: 888.567.8688.
When you receive unwanted mail, take a minute to call the company to remove your address from its list.
After using junk mail—and any other paper you don’t need to keep—as scrap paper, recycle it.
5. Use Rechargeable Batteries
Once they’re all used up, recycle your rechargeable batteries. Did you know more than 350 million rechargeable batteries are purchased annually in the United States? When these batteries no longer hold a charge and are thrown away, they can cause serious harm to human health and the environment.
About 75 percent of municipal solid waste is either sent to a landfill or incinerated. Neither of these methods is suited for the disposal of rechargeable batteries. You can ensure your rechargeable batteries (from laptop computers, cell phones, PDAs, cordless power tools, camcorders and remote control toys) will be properly disposed of by dropping them off at many large retailers.
6. Buy Local, Organic Produce
These large-scale, agribusiness-oriented food systems are bound to fail on the long term, sunk by their own unsustainability. But why wait until weՉ۪ forced by circumstance to abandon our destructive patterns of consumption? We can start now by buying locally grown food whenever possible.
By doing so you’ll be helping preserve the environment, and you’ll be strengthening your community by investing your food dollar close to home. Only 18 cents of every dollar, when buying at a large supermarket, go to the grower. 82 cents go to various unnecessary middlemen. Cut them out of the picture and buy your food directly from your local farmer.
7. Replace a Gas Vehicle with an Electric
Even counting the emissions from power plants used to generate electricity, electric vehicles can reduce automotive emissions by more than 90 percent. Recently, the Department of Energy issued a report that millions of electric cars can recharge every day using nighttime, off-peak electrical generation, a vast, untapped renewable resource.
For more information about exciting Zap! news including electric car transportation go to: http://www.zapworld.com
Thanks for the tips, Zapp! Will add these to our Action Checklist!
What about the exemption for Chavez that we’re hearing so much about? Why would this bill exempt Venezuela’s Chavez?
John, can you explain this? I’m not sure what you’re referring to.
TOO MUCH LEGISLATION
Is it possible that a lot of the problem with the price of oil and the huge profits is the dimenished competition? From what I understand, due to previous environmental legislation, it is unlawful to build a new refinery or expand an existing one in the U.S. Also, domestic oil and natural gas reserves equaling possibly our entire needs are left untapped because it is unlawful to drill for and utilize these known resources and this due to legislation passed at a time when the oil companies were indeed not worried about the environment or their negative PR. Their technology for drilling was nothing like the advancements in place today. Some of the most talented and technical minded environmentalists are making the big bucks working for rich oil companies improving drilling techniques and their affect on the ecology.
WHERE’D ALL THIS MONEY COME FROM?
I truly believe the oil execs just set back and scratch their heads when new legislation is passed narrowing the field of competition. I can just hear it now at the board meeting, “You mean they passed a law that cuts out their own ability to get oil from other soruces besides buying it from me?” Really????
I think they secretly have some “green” lobyists in place to help keep us out of ANWR.
GREENER DAYS AHEAD WHEN YOU GET IN OUR POCKETBOOKS
I believe the current situation is a good thing for the environment and also national security, because it forces us to look at new energy sources besides fossil fuels. These new sources hopfully won’t be controlled by people who want to kill us.
The transition is going to be costly, and the American dream might have to be a little more modest in the mean time but all in all we will be headed in the right direction. I love green as much as the next guy.
I DON’T BELIEVE THE INCONVENIENT TRUTH
My viewpoint toward the environment is not motivated by the “Global Warming” scare since most credible scientists, that are not politically motivated, agree that the earth has been much warmer and had much more drastic temp. swings in earlier times when CO2 gases were not a factor.
No government mandates, international treatys, special billion dollar tax supported programs, or sacrifices in living standards were needed to turn the warming patterns around. This is just the way the planet behaves, constantly warming and cooling and warming and cooling.
CITGO IS OFF THE HOOK
As for Chavez, since he is big oil, (Citgo) and not involved in domestic (U.S.) gas and oil domestic production, he gets a pass on the negative impact of the discontinued subsidy. I found this on another site.
Begin Paste:
On the surface, H.R. 5321 is awful all by itself. Passing 236-182 last week, the bill scrapped the tax deduction routinely given to the major integrated oil companies — Exxon, Chevron, BP, Shell and ConocoPhillips — that helps them explore, extract, refine and market the energy that drives our economy.
This will make it $18 billion more costly for those companies to produce oil. To the House this is a good thing, because large oil companies with large market capitalizations already earn too much.
“The big five oil companies recently reported record profits for 2007, with Exxon Mobil earning $40.6 billion last year alone — the largest corporate profit in American history,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday. “While oil company profits have quadrupled, high energy prices continue to squeeze American families.”
Don’t worry, the $18 billion will still be spent. It’ll just be turned into pork for so-called alternatives and renewables that thus far have failed to produce energy in a free market.
Congress made this even worse by ensuring that its discrimination against the big oils would benefit Citgo, which happens to be owned by those same companies’ worst tormentor abroad — the brutal leftist dictatorship of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez.
Under this bill, the dictator’s oil subsidiary keeps its 6% deduction for U.S. domestic manufacturing — the one the American oil companies lose — because Citgo, technically, buys from Chavez.
How’s that for logic? Worse, the bill includes distorted incentives that will do exactly the opposite of what Congress intends.
• By taxing big oil companies, Congress gives them less cash to develop new sources of supply that would bring these prices down. America’s large integrated oil companies are profitable, but they also are the biggest spenders on exploration and R&D technologies. They have the greatest capacity to reach into the earth’s remotest regions to produce energy; now, they’ll do less of that.
• The bill will force these five companies to pass $18 billion in costs on to buyers. Energy companies, like all private enterprises, don’t eat new taxes — their consumers do. We’ll pay at the pump.
• Meanwhile, U.S. oil companies will have a long-term incentive to locate operations abroad, if only to match the advantage enjoyed by companies such as Citgo. When that happens, America will be more dependent than ever on the whims of foreign petro-tyrants like Chavez.
“The Democrats’ blustery rhetoric on energy couldn’t be more wrongheaded or insulting,” one angry GOP House aide told IBD. “Raising taxes on producers of American energy here at home will only send good-paying jobs overseas, further increase our dependence on foreign oil and make gasoline even more expensive.”
Last year, by the way, Venezuela confiscated assets worth about $6 billion from all five of these same American companies.
Congress seems unmoved by the attack on U.S. companies’ sovereignty. Exxon executives recently charged that Congress’ rabid rhetoric against American oil producers had undermined their efforts to reason with Caracas.
With this bill, Congress only shows its unwillingness to face up to reality. While it passed the House, there’s still hope that it will die in the Senate. If not, President Bush vows a veto.
Such boneheaded legislation, however, should never have been introduced. At a time when we’re trying to stave off recession and bring down the record-high price of crude, Congress is only making matters worse by casting U.S. companies as the enemy.
End
TAX HIKE/BREAK?
Not sure about the particulars in the bill but there must be $18 mil. moving around in the fine print somewhere. From my understanding the Dems intend to “Fast Track” the bill through the Senate. Of course I also believe W will veto it.
THANKS FOR THE CHANCE TO TYPE.
T
I read similar article also named – What we should be doing. at Things That Make You Go Green, and it was completely different. Personally, I agree with you more, because this article makes a little bit more sense for me
Do you guys have a recommendation section, i’d like to suggest some stuff
Jessica – We would love to hear from you! We don’t current have a recommendation section, but feel free to contact all / any of us:
http://thingsthatmakeyougogreen.com/about/
* paul at ttmygg dot com
* jb at ttmygg dot com
* greenhl at ttmygg dot com