Republican’s Plan: Protect Oil Company Tax Burden, Ignore Price Fixing, Environment and Alternative Fuels

The Washington Post described it this way:

Senate Republicans…blocked a proposal to tax the windfall profits of the nation's biggest oil companies and eliminate…$17 billion in tax breaks. The bill would have used the revenue to create an Energy Independence and Security Trust Fund, tasked with reducing U.S. dependence on foreign and "unsustainable" energy sources and reducing the risks of global warming.

(It would also) instructed the Justice Department to pursue members of OPEC
for alleged price fixing and required oil traders to put up more cash on futures
exchanges to address speculation, which many observers believe is contributing
to the unprecedented run-up in world crude oil prices.

Speculation and the lowering of the U.S. dollars value have now been allowed to continue, creating just what the Republicans wanted, an angry knee jerk reaction by the public to demand more drilling and put off the Green revolution.


Senate Republicans faithfully argued against common economical sense, sticking with their failed plan, the one that had created and perpetuated the current crisis. Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said after the vote. "Of everything they have done so far in terms of obstruction, this is the politically most damaging."

The flippant Republican reaction was to dub the Democrats legislation the "no energy bill." They still think increasing domestic oil supplies, which would effect us 7 to 10 years down the road, would save us now and in the future.

If I could sum it up with one statement, I would have to defer to Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), who added that if U.S. consumers' "heads aren't about to blow off their bodies right now, they aren't paying attention. They have a right to be very, very angry."