Oil Companies are raking in record profits. Exxon's profits are up 69%! And yet they still receive billions in corporate welfare and many of the oil companies pay no taxes at all.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/201...We are told that drilling more in environmentally sensitive areas would bring prices down but this price increase has nothing to do with supply and demand. Oil refineries have lots of oil, the price increases are almost entirely to to speculation on oil futures by Wall Street which is also making record profits. Do you think there could be some collusion between the world's richest people to make themselves even richer at our expense?
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/03/04/h...So what could be done to stop the speculation. More regulation would help but we should also cut off the supply of corporate welfare. Obama had a modest proposal to eliminate $4 billion a year but it was opposed by almost all Republicans. They also killed plans to cut off subsidies that rewarded companies to offshore our jobs.
http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/art...One of the largest subsidies to the oil and mining industries is that they can drill and mine on OUR public land for next to nothing. Why don't we charge them the going rate for private land extraction? The government is giving away millions of acres of OUR LAND to developers for $2/acre!
http://rtfitch.wordpress.com/2011/03/07/Unfortunately since Obama is a centrist his proposals also cater to big business and the resulting compromise (Republicans get 85% of what they want for 15% of what Democrats want) Ends up being ultra conservative.
Perhaps we would have been better off if Obama was actually the socialist the Republicans claim he is. Then we might actually end up with centrist policies.
So what would an actual socialist do to the greedy oil companies? How about a tax on excess oil profits. One country allows reasonable profits so the companies can operate and expand but when prices get too high the taxes go up too.
"A 20 percent tax will be in effect when the price of a barrel of Venezuelan oil is between $40 and $70 a barrel, Ramirez said. When the price is between $70 and $90, the tax rises to 80 percent. Between $90 and $100, the tax reaches 90 percent, and if the price tops $100 a barrel, a 95 percent tax will be imposed."
http://peakoil.com/publicpolicy/venezuel...If Obama started his negotiations with a similar position, then maybe we could end up with a FAIR tax that would reflect the actual costs of the dirty polluting industries that are causing the climate change that is causing all of this crazy weather.