I actually agree with Thomas Friedman about something

Gas tax. Stop me before I go absolutely insane, take Hobbitslicer off the shelf and run around killing anyone wearing a McCain OR Clinton button. The Federal Gas Tax is 18.4 cents a gallon. If you have a 12 gallon tank, removing the gas tax and you tank up at 10 gallons or so, you'd save a roaring $1.84. If you fill the tank up twice a week, you save $3.68 a week. If the summer "tax holiday" lasts 15 weeks, you save an incredible $184.00. Assume gas is averaging $4 a gallon by the summer, with or without the gas tax, you'll still have spent $1200 on gas. Get gas back to $3.00 a gallon, and the savings are worth talking about.

Tom Friedman has an interesting column in the Times. I know, Friedman is a free-trade-globalization-is-good-lexus-loving-WTO-groupie Hobbit. He takes the obvious, inflates it to gargantuan Pink Floyd Obama ballon pig size and inflicts it on his readers. But, this country has long since become oblivious to the obvious. Who was it that said "the thing about common sense is that it's rare?" Descartes? W. C.Fields. Well, that's who's running our energy program. WC Descartes. "I think, therefore I'm in Philadelphia..."

Batshit's idea of rolling back the gas tax is insane, and for Clinton to embrace it puts her one step below him. She's doing me-too pandering, and then trying to be a populist by saying "windfall profits tax" to the oil companies. It's absolutely ridiculous. Of course there should be windfall profits taxes from the oil companies; hell, there should be business income taxes from all the major corporations. Tax profits based on the simple accounting formulas that say that profit is equal to "revenue minus costs' and allow a 50% tax credit for R&D leading to increased or improved oil-based energy, 100% for nuclear, and 125% for enhanced solar, wind or geothermal R&D and deployment of these systems. Watch the Seven Sisters go crazy, trying to find more and better ways to sell this stuff. Here's another idea: require all new homes to have a solar or wind capacity to generate 50% of the energy needs. Give homeowners tax credits equal to 125% of the cost of installing the systems. Fund it all out of the windfall profits tax.

From good ole Tommy Friedman.:

The McCain-Clinton gas holiday proposal is a perfect example of what energy expert Peter Schwartz of Global Business Network describes as the true American energy policy today: “Maximize demand, minimize supply and buy the rest from the people who hate us the most.” (AXE Emphasis)

Now, I don't know what works here. I drive and love a Dodge Charger and my idea of economy when I bought it was that I didn't buy the Hemi. But, even speedfreak AXE is wondering why anyone wants to buy a Challenger with a 425 cubic inch engine or any other V8 with gas prices here in the Crossroads of Opportunity a tremendous $3.91 for regular. At Circle K. What the hell are people thinking? Well, they're not. Three things we have in abundance out here, sun and empty space and lots of wind. No -- listen carefully -- no meaningful solar or wind or geothermal efforts but lots of raw materials for those efforts.

Folks -- now I'm being folksy, I really need to kill something -- are reluctant to do wind farms because the windmills kill the birds, and they're noisy. When the fuck were we reluctant to kill birds in the name of the American lifestyle? Solar is expensive. Well, yes it is, because the scale is too small. The technology is relatively simple. The sole issue preventing most homeowners from going solar is the upfront costs. So, have DOE subsidize loans at prime to install the damn things. Here's the problem -- I'm reluctant to take on major costs to upgrade my McMansion in a time of falling home sales. Damn it, anything we do that creates jobs and reduces energy use both in the short run and the long run makes sense. But there are costs. The only dog big enough to handle that cost is the government. The way the government does business is through taxes. So, tax the people who have the money and use it to make the future a little safer.

Comments

[uncle buck]

I dig how the first photo of a "photovoltaic" panel is on the space station (or satellite).
Proof that, where there's the will....
I know it doesn't matter, but I've wondered for years how things might have turned out if Carter had eked out a second term. Perhaps nothing more than solar panels remaining on the White House roof for another four years. Good time for a "timequake"?
Barstow, Ca.,...now there's a space just crying out for solar, wind and geothermal(tap them fault lines!) initiatives. Jobs, too!

[sglover]

I know that McCain is just dumb, but if I weren't aware that HRC is especially blessed with the gifts of empathy and lumpen-sympathy via her ovaries, I'd almost begin to suspect that she thinks the country's full of saps.

Must be PTSD. I guess that Serbian sniper must've shaken the old gal up pretty bad.