I know how to solve the gas price problem

[jmowreader]

Right now.

Liberals have a weird problem: we can't see the trees in front of us for the forest three mountains over.

In this case, when we talk about the Gas Price Problem, we talk about biofuels, solar, hybrid cars, getting rid of gas guzzlers...all important, but YEARS away from being able to be implemented well enough to make a dent in this thing.

And while we work on this long-range stuff, we're still pumping $3 per gallon fuel into our cars and consoling ourselves that the Germans have it much worse than we.

The task facing us is fairly simple on its face: get the price of gas down now through some sort of legal engineering, and keep it down long-term through a move to alternative sources of energy.

I know just the legal legerdemain to use to get the price of gas down now: declare the oil companies to be participating in profiteering during wartime, announce that special wartime measures are necessary to keep this vital commodity flowing, and nationalize the oil industry until the war ends. Put them on cost-plus-five-percent pricing.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

1. with oilmen as POTUS and VPOTUS

and SecState...

yeah, that will happen.... WHEN PIGS FLY!

[kenny blankenship]

2. Yeah, I know--it's a war when they want to take our civil rights

"There's a WAR on, you fuckin' crazy Liberal!"
It's WAR. Gotta shutup for the Preznit, gotta support our troops, gotta be quiet about new 'police state' warrantless surveillance measures and the trashing of due process, BUT--

but when when anyone mentions common wartime interventions by the gov't into the economy--price controls, steep taxes on wealth, nationalization of industries--suddenly it's not a "wartime situation" anymore. Suddenly things aren't so urgent.

It's great: it's war when they want it to be war, and moreover a war that may last forever in theory; but not war when they don't want to call for certain lifestyle sacrifices to be made. Speak up about the wrongness of the war, the transformation of the President's office into a kind of dictatorship, and you're accused of treason, because we all have to be in this thing together for victory, but they don't have to give up the peacetime division of profits or their cushy lifestyle, because it's still every man for himself. The best of both worlds--for the corporate elite.

[Egalitariat]

3. If you don't do it worldwide, then the oil would just quit flowing

to the US and would be diverted to the other major worldwide consumers. The biggest profiteers in this whole thing is OPEC and the US has no special Wartime powers over them.

[ClintonTyree]

6. No, BIG OIL would still pay the same as everyone else......

but they'd be limited to a 5% profit above costs until "the war on terra'" is over. I think you'd see the fake "war on terra'" end a LOT damned sooner. In fact, you can BET it would! ;) Start squeezing these guys by the balls a little and you'll get their freaking attention.

[Egalitariat]

9. What is their profit margin now?****

nm

[ClintonTyree]

10. About 8-10%.......

or so they say. I'd like to see their tax records. So would the Senate I think. ;) Oh yeah, that's right. The Senate IS taking a look at them. Isn't that special?

[Warpy]

4. Windfall profits tax

Use it to fund research and development of alternative energy and light rail systems.

Tighten up emissions standards on light trucks like SUVs.

Place a surtax on all new vehicles that get less than 20 MPG, assessed per MPG under 20.

Oh, and RAISE THE MINIMUM WAGE. If employers weren't so fucking stingy, this rise in gas prices wouldn't hurt nearly as much.

[jmowreader]

14. And you're still missing the trees for the forests

Research and development are great.

Light rail is great.

Alternative energy is great.

Will any of those get the price of gas down tomorrow? No.

Would nationalizing the oil industry, which is the only way to solve the CURRENT problem, get the price of gas down tomorrow? Yes.

Here's what it would do:

a. We can put the headquarters staffs of the oil companies on the military pay scale. I don't want them to be poor, so the pay of the CEO will be set to the same rate as that of a four-star general. The next level down will be paid like three-stars, below that two-stars and so on. IIRC a four-star general takes home $5000 per month. You can live on five bills a month no matter how much you like lobster and eggs for breakfast. An executive taking home a monthly paycheck that's got two commas in it is wrong no matter how you feel about the maximum wage.

b. We can eliminate the windfall profits. I read in the paper two days ago that three of the top oil companies are reporting profits sixteen times that of three of the top computer companies--the computer companies included Apple and Oracle; the oil companies included ConocoPhillips. Sixteen times. This is bullshit. Cost plus five percent. Period.

c. We can normalize the refinery maintenance schedules. I've always found it very interesting that oil refineries always seem to need to be torn down in the middle of the summer. Naturally, this causes the price of fuel to go up. Refineries are able to schedule their routine maintenance...there is no reason they can't schedule it for times when fuel's not so much in demand, like the middle of the winter.

d. We can make sure there are enough refineries on line to meet demand. The oil companies love to shut refineries down in the middle of the summer due to "overcapacity." Too much gasoline to keep prices as high as they'd prefer is more like it.

e. We can solve this "refinery fire" problem. I've noticed that when gas is priced really attractively, there's always a fire at a refinery to close it down and run the price back up. That's bullshit too.

Nationalize the oil industry and gas will be down around $1.859 in three months.

[Egalitariat]

16. 4 Star Generals have to make more than $60K per year? Right?

If you drop the wages of the Big Oil decision makers to $60K per year, they'd all quit. And you'd end up replacing them with $60K government bureaucrats to run a business (Exxon spends about $1 billion per day), which government bureaucrats don't know how to do.

I think your intentions are good, and your plan might get gas to $1.859 per gallon, but finding a gas station that actually had any gas would be like winning the lottery.

[jmowreader]

17. And that's another benefit of nationalization

If you use a Nixonian price freeze, there's not going to be any gas.

If the government takes over the petroleum industry and it runs as a branch of government until the end of the war, there's going to be gas.

The major benefit here would be the end of the war. The petroleum companies would hire the Mafia to go shoot Osama bin Laden, would get hold of their friends in Iraq and tell them to close the militias, would do anything they felt necessary to get the war ended. These guys would NOT like to be nationalized, they wouldn't stand for it, they'd get the fucking war stopped in a month.

[Warpy]

18. Your points about the refineries are well taken

and should certainly be done. Mothballed refineries should also be reopened. We're at refinery capacity because Big Oil CLOSED refineries in the 80s. This can be done without nationalizing the industry.

However, my point is also valid. We desperately need a rise in the minimum wage. This is the real problem, because the inflation we've seen in gasoline isn't even keeping up with inflation in other areas.

Also taxing the windfall profits and using it to fund steps toward renewable energy and mass transit is also necessary. We know the oil companies don't invest in much more than dividends and executive pay packages.

Nationalizing the industry is not a good option, since it would put a bunch of oil men in charge of oil. There would be tremendous resistance to it from stockholders, and there are a lot of old folks out there living on those oil stocks.

You are not going to get your gas prices down overnight, no matter what you do. However, you can lessen the impact overnight by raising the lowest wages, something that tends to lift the wages of all working people.

[BigBearJohn]

5. I think the oil industry should be nationalized PERIOD

[4morewars]

8. Health care too !

[INdemo]

7. Please check out "give hell Harry" Reid's web site

and read the proposals by Democrats concerning high gas prices,price gouging etc...and what is is the works..

[lvx35]

11. There ya go...

...and while were at it,. lets nationalize AT&T, so illegal government domestic spying can actually be done by the GOVERNMENT instead of private entity! :)

[MacDuff]

12. Don't really want to offend you...

but that has got to be one of the dumbest things I've read in a while...

"get the price of gas down now through some sort of legal engineering, and keep it down long-term through a move to alternative sources of energy"

so we should do this despite the FACT that OIL is trading at an all-time high? World-wide oil prices are high, therefore gas in the US is high (the MTBE/ethanol changeover and reduced refinery ability in the Gulf from Katrina is hurting prices as well) - so what sort of "legal engineering" would result in cheap oil? We sue OPEC? we refuse to pay OPEC? What exactly do you think we can do, in a legal-sense that will stop Oil from being the price it is?

OIL, a fungible (look it up) commodity, traded on the world market sets most of the price of gasoline (taxes, refining and transportation the rest - taxes are 18.2 CENTS of this equation)

You want to have oil (and therefore gas) drop in price? you REALLY want that?

GET THAT IDIOT IN THE WHITE HOUSE TO SWEAR ON A BIBLE ON TELEVISION THAT HE WILL NOT ATTACK IRAN!!!! Probably $15-$20/barrel of oil is based on fear that the Idiot Boy will start dropping bombs on Iran - and we will a) lose Iran's export ability and b) Iran might be able to (temporarily) close the Straights of Hormuz to most of the Middle East's oil shipments - those who buy oil are VERY worried about what this crazy f-er will do - and those fears drive the price up

another part? Nigeria - the rebels in Nigeria are cutting off much of the oil production in that country - and threatening to cut off more - perhaps the idiot in the White House could try to force the Nigerian gov't to be a LITTLE less corrupt, to feed a BIT of all that filthy oil money to the people who live in the oil region, and perhaps the rebels wouldn't be fighting the gov't, and you could drive your gas-guzzler in peace?

But the REAL problem? WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF OIL!!! Demand (worldwide) is exceeding supply for the first time in history - and prices are rising accordingly - get used to it, this is how things are going to look for the next 30 years until the oil is gone

Please try to understand economics on a world-wide scale before announcing what "We Liberals" should do - you want to know what I am doing?

I am moving within 6 blocks of my workplace, so I can ride my beach cruiser to work - I am going to alternate with my friend (who lives 400 yards from my new place) driving to the mountains to ride my mountain bike - saving more on gas - In my family of 4 (adults) we have 3 hybrid cars

Instead of whining and seeking legal action, "Liberals" should push for an INCREASE in taxes on gasoline and other sources of energy in the US - we should reduce payroll taxes by the same amount - why? because the more energy you SAVE the more you save in taxes - we should encourage conservation - leave encouraging consumption to the pigs-at-the-trough Republicans...

[kymar57]

13. electricity and natural gas are subject to gment regulation. aren't they?

Why should fuel not be.None of these are absolutely necessary to live. Millions of people around the world survive without these luxuries. In this country however, we have to have gasoline to live life as we have come to know it. Personally I could probably cut my gas usage 2 or 3% if I had to. That still leaves the 97%+ that I have to have to make my world go round.

[leftofthedial]

15. I agree, except for the phrase "until the war ends"