Until carbon producers transit from producing profits from carbon, we won't have alternatives. It's an insane round robin. A not-so-merry-go-round.
There are $Trillions upon $Trillions of gross revenues left for oil/coal/gas companies to suck out of the earth both on and offshore. This is why they will never change their ways until forced to do so.
Oil companies have made record profits, more than many countries' GDP.
Let's tax those profits with a
Carbon Conversion Tax (CCT)
The end users like power companies and consumers can't change their ways until other ways are created.
And other ways can't be created without new sources.
And new sources won't be up and running fast enough without money. The oil/coal/gas producers are making huge profits. As long as the oil/coal/gas companies are raking in their huge profits and keeping them, they won't change.
Therefore, we tax their profits and use this revenue to produce the alternative energies.
It's plain and simple. It's brilliant. It's straightforward. It's easy. It's at least an idea!
Until these profit behemoths are given an incentive (carrot and sticks) to switch from carbon profits to green profits, they will keep drilling and polluting and
DESTROYING OUR PLANET
Congress, for too long, has been the patsy, the enabler, the cog in the wheel that must be removed so we can get off this toxic carbon fueled merry-go-round.
Case in point:
2006 - Subsidies for Oil Producers
Oil Company Subisdies: $7 billion + 2.6 billion + ...
Vague Law and Hard Lobbying Add Up to Billions for Big Oil
By Edmund L. Andrews, NY Times, March 27, 2006
But last month, the Bush administration confirmed that it expected the government to waive about $7 billion in royalties over the next five years, even though the industry incentive was expressly conceived of for times when energy prices were low. And that number could quadruple to more than $28 billion if a lawsuit filed last week challenging one of the program's remaining restrictions proves successful.
''The big lie about this whole program is that it doesn't cost anything,'' said Representative Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who tried to block its expansion last July. ''Taxpayers are being asked to provide huge subsidies to oil companies to produce oil -- it's like subsidizing a fish to swim.''
But on Aug. 8, Mr. Bush signed a sweeping energy bill that contained $2.6 billion in new tax breaks for oil and gas drillers and a modest expansion of the 10-year-old ''royalty relief'' program.
http://zfacts.com/...
And this:
Since George Bush became President in 2001, the top five oil companies in the United States have recorded profits of $464 billion through the first quarter of 2007:
ExxonMobil: $158.5 billion
Shell: $108.5 billion
BP: $ 89.2 billion
ChevronTexaco: $ 60.9 billion
ConocoPhillips: $ 46.9 billion
Meanwhile, gas prices continue to go up up up - and no oil company is reinvesting their profits into the things that will benefit motorists. For example, in 2006 ExxonMobil spent $37.2 billion buying back its stock and paying dividends - at the same time, the company spent only $3.3 billion on capital investment in the U.S.
http://www.citizen.org/...
To put $464 billion oil profits into some perspective,
$464 billion is five times the cost of the entire Health Reform cost per year (approx. $94 billion/yr
It's more than half the 2011 Defense Budget
Obama seeks record $708 bln in 2011 defense budget
http://www.reuters.com/...
Bush and his Congress gave the oil industry a Hay Day, no doubt. Well, good for them. They are rolling in dough.
It's time to seek some balance, provide incentives to them to go green, and use the Carbon Conversion Tax on their bloated profits to SAVE THE PLANET!
BPs cute logo with the sun and their "we're green" ad campaign can be used in our favor. They acknowledged the need to change to green energy.
The CCT's can be used by countries to build green energy that will cut out the carbon behmoths and empower green technologies with cash to build the infrastructure needed.
With the will AND the cash, we can change our energy sources in a much shorter period of time.
IMHO
All the schemes, which can be exploited and traded, that are based on end user behavior won't stop the oil/coal/gas companies from extraction and will only slow the process of transiting to green energy.
Cap and Trade is the wrong direction to take because there is too much incentive ($$$) for the Oil/Coal/Gas cartels to continue extracting carbon from the earth and no incentive for them to transit to green.
Think how crazy it really is to expect the end users to make a filthy energy source clean? And how expensive it is for all these smaller companies (compared to the oil/coal/gas behemoths) to do so. How nuts is it to expect workers with no choice but to drive to work, to drive less with little to infrastructure in place to allow them to do so?
Doesn't it makes more sense for the behemoths to pay for the transition to clean energy.
Check out these links reporting on coal profits:
http://www.google.com/...
And these links reporting record profits for oil and natural gas:
http://www.google.com/...
Oil/coal/gas producers profit hugely, they have the resources, they have expertise, and we can provide them with an incentive. If we are honest with ourselves, we would admit that the energy behemoths will also own green energy via buyouts and mergers. It's how they became the behemoths they are. If we force their hand, we can become green or at least a lot greener.
And, again, until carbon producers transit from producing profits from carbon, we won't have alternatives. It's an insane round robin. A not-so-merry-go-round.
Taxing net profits would be like putting a wedge in the cogs that run the merry-go-round.
And while we are at it, we can also tax the gains of the investors. For instance, George Soros bought $811 million in Brazil's state-owned oil company. Tax his gains (whether he redeems them or not) every year:
Bloomberg Published: 23:58 August 15, 2008
Soros hedge fund invests $811m to buy Petrobras stake
Billionaire investor George Soros bought an $811 million stake in Petroleo Brasileiro (Petrobras) in the second quarter, making the Brazilian state-controlled oil company his investment fund's largest holding.
http://gulfnews.com/...
And why are we, the taxpayers who get gouged by gas prices, subsidizing the oil industry, while they pay their shareholders higher and higher dividends each year. THAT is a blatant transfer of wealth from the majority of citizens to corporations, imo.
Some Profitability Proof
2010 - 1st Quarter Profits
Apr 29 2010 5:23pm EDT
Oil Company Profits on Fire
The oil industry is pumping out profits nearly as fast as the well near the sunken Deepwater Horizon rig expels a torrent of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
http://www.portfolio.com/...
Lastly, according to this Oil Industry Profit Review 2007 produced by the Congressional Research Service, we are on the road to importing gasoline!
http://fpc.state.gov/...
How will that be good for the economy? Imagine our country not being able to produce enough gasoline during the transition to green tech? Flashing back to the gas shortages of the 1970s makes me shudder.
I know it's a dirty business, but should we really offshore oil refineries and remain unable to provide for our own use?
Where's the incentive to make the behemoths invest in refineries here, or wind farms, solar panel installations, weatherizing homes and businesses?
Maybe that's why the Obama administration is tying up some loose ends to loan $10 billion to Brazil's state-owned oil giant, Petrobas.
http://www.laht.com/...
Sometimes the best ideas are so simple.
Here's some additional reading:
For 12.5 trillion reasons why they will not stop deep water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, you can read here:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
For the history of deep water drilling and environmental damage from oil, you can read here:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
For the history and Congressional Bills leading up to exploiting the oil in the Gulf of Mexico, you can read here:
http://www.dailykos.com/...