How to achieve full energy independence in fifteen years...

[Tired_O_Lurking]

How to achieve full energy independence in fifteen years...#0

Posted: 9/27/05 at 2:13pm

I just read this on my old Econ prof's blog and thought I would share:


1. Impose an immediate and permanent oil import tax set on a sliding scale between $95/bbl and current world price. If world price is $70, the tax is $25/bbl. If world price sinks to $35, the tax automatically rises to $60/bbl.

This tax is permanent. Energy costs as seen by households and businesses will initially rise substantially but will quickly stabilize and won't fluctuate even one tiny bit from year to year. What now goes "up and down" is import tax revenue, not domestic energy costs. It is possible there are massive cost reductions in many if not all areas of production to be realized if energy costs are permanently and credibly stabilized.

2. Spend some of the new massive revenue on whatever redistribution is necessary to ease the transition to the new economy. Spend some of it on alternative energy and conservation. Spend some of it on lowering other taxes here and there. Heck, I don't care.

3. Spend the rest on speeding the development of domestic recoverable oil shale. James Perry, who provided this link, describes the situation as follows:

The largest known oil shale deposits in the world are in the Green River Formation, which covers portions of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Estimates of the oil resource in place within the Green River Formation range from 1.5 to 1.8 trillion barrels. Not all resources in place are recoverable. For potentially recoverable oil shale resources, we roughly derive an upper bound of 1.1 trillion barrels of oil and a lower bound of about 500 billion barrels. For policy planning purposes, it is enough to know that any amount in this range is very high. For example, the midpoint in our estimate range, 800 billion barrels, is more than triple the proven oil reserves of Saudi Arabia.

At current rates of consumption these deposits would keep a U.S. petroleum-based economy going for another 100 years with no oil imports.


Source

[Gothampc]

re: How to achieve full energy independence in fifteen years...#1

Posted: 9/27/05 at 3:17pm

The problem with this is that anytime new taxes are introduced, they always fall to the burden of the middle class. Additionally, taxes never really go to what they are intended (i.e. Social Security; fixing the levee in New Orleans, etc).

Why mess with Colorado, Utah and Wyoming? ANWR is the better choice.

If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.