Akin uses I-70 as prop for new energy bill
U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, R-Town and Country, held a news conference within earshot of busy Interstate 70 in St. Charles Friday to promote his new energy exploration proposal - and to rip Congressional Democrats for their record on the issue.
“People are aware that things aren’t right when you have to pay 4 dollars a gallon for gasoline,” Akin said in front of the St. Charles Convention Center.
Akin said his bill, introduced recently, would expand the U.S. oil supply by opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the outer continental shelf to oil drilling and making federal land available for new oil and gas refineries.
He said the bill calls for those and other items - such as economic incentives to build refineries and nuclear power plants - to kick in when the cost of crude oil reaches $150 a barrel. Passage is unlikely in the Democratic-run House.
“I just pulled 150 dollars out of my ear,” he said. “But maybe the Democrats come back and say no, it’s got to be 200. But let’s get the dialogue going.”
He criticized Democrats for blocking previous GOP energy initiatives and complained about Democratic efforts to enact a windfall profits tax on oil companies. He said that wouldn’t help expand the supply of oil, which he said is a key in keeping prices down.
“Of course the energy companies are going to be making obscene profits” when the price jumps so much, he said.
Akin claimed he didn’t want to sound partisan but couldn’t avoid it because Congressional vote records show most on Capitol Hill hewing closely to party lines on energy issues in recent years.
Behind Akin was a placard proclaiming The Pelosi Premium, a national GOP catch-phrase of sorts in recent months. The sign compared the price of gas the day Democrat Nancy Pelosi became House speaker, ($2.33 a gallon nationally), to the price earlier this month ($3.99).
Another placard cited increases in the cost of milk, bread and eggs in the same period. Akin said that’s not all the Democrats’ fault but said “the energy component has been an almost totally partisan question.”
I-70 wasn’t the only prop in Akin’s PR arsenal. Parked behind him was a large refrigerated truck supplied by Witte Brothers Exchange Inc., a Troy, Mo., trucking firm. Company president Brent Witte said the high price of diesel fuel is hurting business and resulting in higher consumer prices.
Akin staffers had scheduled the event even closer to I-70, in the park ‘n’ ride lot next to the highway. Rain forced a switch across the south access road to a covered driveway in front of the convention center.
These Republican obstructionists in Congress have a lot of nerve mouthing off on energy after their latest disgraceful performance on Capitol Hill:
Republicans Block Taxes On Big Oil Profits: Senate GOP Stops Dems’ Effort To Rein In Profits Of Largest Oil Companies As Gas Prices Soar
from cbsnews.com:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/06/10/national/main4168780.shtml
MS, Republicans are right on this point: Taxing oil companies will do absolutely nothing to lower the price of gasoline and other energy products. The only way to accomplish that is (1) increase supply; (2) decrease demand. Which one of those two things will a tax on oil companies accomplish?
Now, it is equally true that Obama is correct in saying that the McCain/Clinton idea of suspending the federal gasoline tax is wrong. By reducing the price at the pump without changing the underlying supply or demand, the price will just creep back up to its previous level. Then, when the tax holiday ends, we’ll be paying even more.
It’s humorous, while maddeningly sad, to hear folks lament the failure of Congress to raise taxes on the oil companies (read increased operating costs that are ultimately paid by you and me at the gas pump). What kind of economics, or logic for that matter, is this? Folks, this isn’t rocket science!!
You lower the cost of virtually anything by producing more of it. Increasing domestic energy production should be Job #1.
To give more money to the government means it will ultimately come out of your and my pocket!! – including more tax on the “rich”. If you want to talk like this, put your money where your mouth is – otherwise, use your head because you’re talking crazy. Contributions anyone?
We should be increasing the energy supply, but not by increasing the supply of oil. In the US, we only have limited reserves that can be reached relatively easily. The Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge, if opened to oil exploration, will not be available for production for a decade, by which time other sources will be drained. So we can keep on going down the path we are on, albeit a little more slowly.
Or we can start turning onto a new one by maximizing incentives to get off fossil fuels and onto clean renewable energy.
We MUST do two things…………..
First explore for new sources of energy and REDUCE regulation. Reduced regulation INCREASES competition and LOWERS prices. Has anyone noticed that QT sets the market price? Why does EVERY station charge the same?
Government restrictions on energy exploration are counter productive. The technology used in current operating nuclear plants is from the 1960’s! The reduction in regulations must include new nuclear plants operating withing the next 10 years.
Provide large tax credits and incentives for alternative forms of tranportation. Give citys, towns and states incentives to create more mass transit. Allow land owners to get BIG tax relief for granting R.O.W. to transportation projects.
These are only ideas, but progress starts with such things. In the meantime we MUST be allowed to drill in ANWR and on the Continental Shelf.
obscene profits carry an adjective…
In the E.U., which many say, is our mirror, once we’re old enough to be sheared..
eh…shaved…
the taxes on fuel go to Infrastructure.
Oil, like War
has gotten to a situation, where if allowed to be driven by profit
will affect World relations…
>>My personal opinion>>> Defense contractors, Patriots that they are, should work ‘at cost’ in times of War, and be paid by Free Market standards, in those times, that they are so successful, that Wars do not happen.
>>>My personal opinion>>> Oil people are not “Energy” people. If we allow ‘Oil(nk)” to be understood as the only ‘energy’, then we lose. The patents of small smart people are absorbed.
Ironically,
we St. Louisan’s want to bend all the ‘Corporate Reality’
created and abused by the 14th Amendment,
to protect a brewery.
and yet, we can’t see where Multinationals are corrupting
State, Constitution, and Sovereignty.
InBev is in Brussels…
hello??!!!! the new capitol of Europe??????
It’s obvious who contributes to these Republican Congressmen. Akin’s drilling ideas will do little to lower gas prices any time soon, but will go a long way toward maximizing Oil profits in the future, as long as we don’t figure out any alternative fuels in the next 10 years.
And then blaming Pelosi for our economic problems? Honestly. I’m no fan of hers, but it wasn’t HER idea to start a war we can’t afford, or HER fault the housing market’s upside down, or that the dollar is tanking. For this, we can thank the multinational banks, oil companies, and weapons mfr’s, who bankroll Republican officials like Akin, and then reap the rewards. If you want to know who’s “at fault”, just follow the $$.
As long as the oil and war businesses are driven by profits, we will ALWAYS be at war, and ALWAYS dependent on oil, thanks to the legislators they own.
I like the idea about “Defense” contractors working at cost in times of “war”, but this is not so much a “war” as an “expansion” of the corporate empire. Iraq never “attacked” us in any way, so why are we still calling them “defense” contractors? They’re only providing “OFFENSE” these days—they’re not “defending ” anything but their own bottom line!
I also like the idea of incentives for mass transit, but does our ConcernedRepublican1 realize how many such systems across the country were BOUGHT OUT and DESTROYED decades ago, by oil and tire companies?
The following is a response to Rep. Akin’s Energy position, thx BD
St. Louis, MO. — June 17, 2008
Democratic Candidate for Congress Byron DeLear (www.DeLearforCongress.org) called on Rep. Todd Akin to come clean about his support for Bush’s energy policies and the big oil conglomerates.
Last Friday, Rep. Akin staged a publicity stunt over I-70 to promote his new “Energy Extortion Bill”. The Akin proposal would allow oil corporations to begin drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) as well as the outer continental shelf. No renewable or alternative energy solutions are mentioned in Rep. Akin’s “Energy Extortion Bill”.
Drilling in ANWR has been debated by both the Senate and House for years. According to the Department of Energy (DOE), Senators Levin-Coleman and other reports, if drilling were authorized in ANWR, it would take a decade for oil from the Arctic Refuge to reach the market place, and would reduce the price of gas by no more than a few pennies per gallon, providing no immediate relief for Americans now suffering due to high gas prices.
“It’s no secret that Big Oil is a major contributor to the GOP political machinery which Bush and Akin are a part of”, said DeLear. “Akin’s legislation will do more to help oil corporations maximize profits than it will ever do to reduce gas prices, now or in the future. We, as Federal legislators, should instead be focusing on excessive market speculation and manipulation that many leading economists have identified as being a primary culprit in the price of oil skyrocketing in the last year. Successfully addressing this component of our energy portfolio could get oil prices down to more reasonable levels and give Missourians the assistance they need now, rather than a scheme to drill more which will do nothing for years to come.”
Dependence on fossil fuels as our primary energy source is an obsolete concept that is ultimately doomed to fail and needs to be replaced with sustainable alternatives.
Creating a sustainable and harmonious relationship between our civilization’s needs and the environment that meets those needs, is a necessity for America’s long-term economic health.
There is a scientific, corporate and now, political consensus emerging that we must replace the polluting fossil-fuel based economy with a new economy; a Green economy.
According to Byron DeLear, this presents great job-creating prospects for Missouri and America.
“We should embrace this shift with the same spirit embodied in Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal, the Marshall Plan and the technological explosion born out of NASA’s Apollo Program which sent the first man to the Moon,” said DeLear. “Renewable energy technologies are clearly the long-term solution and should be an integral part of any new energy initiatives from Congress.”
For additional information on DeLear for Congress, please visit http://www.DeLearForCongress.org
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