Democratic Senator Calls for
GOP to Alter Energy Policy

WILL LESTER / AP 10may2008

The public must pressure Republicans in the White House and Congress to change directions in the country's energy policies, which have pushed oil and gas prices to record highs, a Democratic lawmaker said Saturday.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow said the rising price of oil, fostered by President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney's close ties to the oil industry, is no longer just a burden.

"Now it is a crisis for every American family," the Michigan senator said in the Democrats' weekly radio address. She called the current energy situation "a crisis that doesn't just affect us at the pump, but also raises the prices of groceries, increases our home heating bills and squeezes small businesses trying to keep their heads above water."

Oil rose above $126 a barrel for the first time Friday and gasoline prices rose above an average $3.67 a gallon at the pump.

"Republicans want more drilling, more consumption and more tax giveaways for the big oil companies," she said. "Democrats say that those are exactly the policies that got us into this mess to begin with."

She promoted the Democratic proposals for changing energy policy. Those call for:

• Ending billions of dollars in tax breaks for big oil companies.
  
  
• Forcing the oil companies to do their part by investing some of their profits in clean and affordable alternative energy.
  
  
• Protecting the American people from price gougers and greedy oil traders who manipulate the market.
  
  
• Temporarily stopping the diversion of oil to the national Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which is already 97 percent full.
  
  
• Standing up to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and other oil-producing nations that are working together to keep oil prices high.

"This fight won't be easy," Stabenow said, urging the public to pressure the GOP. "The President and his oil buddies have gotten used to the spoils of plunder, and they won't give up without a fight."

Republican National Committee spokeswoman Amber Wilkerson said, "The Democrats clearly don't understand the economy and the devastating burden that their proposed tax increases would impose on families and businesses across America."

source: 10may2008

Mindfully.org:

Continued from above . . .

Car manufacturers recently killed the electric car. They obscure, buy out or destroy any viable efficient vehicles that comes along. Many years ago, there was a street car system in the (San Francisco) East Bay Area called the Key System. It started running in 1903 as the "San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose Railway (SFOSJR). Key streetcars ran until 1948 and the system was dismantled in 1958. It's demise was the result of being purchased in the late-1940s by National City Lines, a General Motors affiliate, and promptly and purposefully let deteriorate until ridership dwindled. National City Lines petitioned the public utility board to abandon the last rail lines. In 1949, a Federal Court convicted General Motors, Standard Oil of California, Firestone Tire and others of criminally conspiring to monopolize the sale of buses and related products to their subsidiary transit companies throughout the U.S. 

Today, we have the Bush gang doing a similar thing with the US. But what the Democrats should be doing is educating the public on how to reduce energy consumption of all types. The first and foremost idea for them to promote is a radical reduction in usage of energy-consuming vehicles and products. And we stress the phrase "radical reduction." Only after radical reductions in energy usage comes the use of energy efficient vehicles and products, and then, only when necessary. It is vital to stress the importance of use-reduction as THE first and most important means of reducing the use of energy. Alternative fuels and technology will NOT solve our problems, but will actually increase problems. 

Tax breaks and subsidies for oil companies should have ended decades ago. If one thinks about it, tax payer funding of the highways is a direct subsidy to both vehicle manufacturers and oil companies. Another example is the production of plastic products, all of which consume massive amounts of petroleum products and energy. The plastics industry keeps pumping out plastic products that break thousands (perhaps millions) of years before the plastic itself breaks down. The ocean has 6 times more plastic by weight than zooplankton floating in it. Just as the auto manufacturers and oil companies illegally destroyed a viable public transport system, the plastics manufacturers accomplished having the public take responsibility for "recycling" and disposing of all the plastic waste. Plastics manufacturers externalized the liabilities of plastics onto the taxpayers. 

So, exactly how does the government protect Americans from price gougers and greedy oil traders who manipulate the market?

That's a great goal for Democrats to promote. The only correct answer is to get America off of oil and other unsustainable energy products such as ethanol, as well as all biofuels. What really is the Democrats plan? Now that is a great question. We already know what the GOP has planned — to use more, drill more. And that's a sure-fired path to oblivion. Tune in later . . .