Gas Prices
Mainstream Media Plays Catch Up. Again.
60 Minutes finally asks why gas started costing more than fine champagne last year. Better than late than never, we guess.
January 13, 2009 | Read More
Uncle Sam To GM: All I Got Is $25 Billion
Hank Paulson has apparently decided that General Motors - one of the biggest corporations on the planet, which employees 200,000 and provides health care and pensions to a million Americans - is not ‘too big too fail.’ But don’t feel too sorry for the behemoth multinational. It looks like Uncle Sam has found a way to toss a couple dozen billion its way after all.
November 3, 2008 | Read More
Kill the Corn Ethanol Boondoggle
Corn-belt states like Iowa and Nebraska and agribusiness giants like Archer-Daniels-Midland love ethanol. They make billions from it. Much of that money comes directly from taxpayers in the form of subsidies.
All that cash might be worth it if ethanol actually did something significant to solve global warming or end our reliance on foreign oil. But it does neither. Even if every acre of corn grown in America went to make ethanol, it would only fill a small fraction of our oil needs. And it takes so much energy to produce a gallon of corn-based fuel that it barely decreases greenhouse…
August 27, 2008 | Read More
Reason #81: Gasholes and Jackgases - Isolation on Wheels
Americans like to picture themselves driving off into the sunset, but right now, unless we make real changes to our energy policy, we’re speeding toward a cliff.
The farthest place you can get from Europe and its bullet trains is Smugsville, USA. Everyone here’s got a “up yours” attitude and we’re proud of it. How do you know you’re in Smugsville? When you’re in a car, by yourself, with the pedal to the metal and bass booming in your ears as you jerk the wheel back and forth to cut from lane to lane.
Let’s face it: We’re a culture on wheels. We demand…
August 27, 2008 | Read More
Reason #79: Ethanol, Another Phony Solution
Another stupid idea that politicians like to pitch is filling our tanks with corn ethanol. But again, it’s nothing but another boondoggle that lets politicians act like they’re doing something about our energy needs.
First of all, corn ethanol is horribly inefficient. Turning an ear of corn into fuel costs more than a dollar a gallon and it eats up almost as much fuel as it yields. What’s more, it corrodes pipelines, meaning every drop of it has to be hauled to the pump in tanker trucks. So we not only burn tons of energy just to make the stuff, we…
August 27, 2008 | Read More
End Corporate Welfare
Big oil companies are raking in record profits these days. Hundreds of billions of dollars fly out Americans’ pockets at the pump and straight into the accounts of ExxonMobil and Chevron. Yet, unbelievably, the government gives those same companies huge tax breaks. That’s outrageous.
It’s the same story in other industries. Massive corporations deploy armies of accountants and lobbyists on Capitol Hill to finagle sweetheart tax deals. Meanwhile, the rest of us have to pay up every year by April 15 or face the wrath of the IRS.
Corporations should be taxed proportionally to their profits, period. They shouldn’t be able to brag…
August 27, 2008 | Read More
Reason #59: Over a Barrel
High gas prices are a huge story these days. The so-called experts in the mainstream media treat them like a natural disaster, a hurricane or some other act of god. They breathlessly report on every half cent rise in a gallon of gasoline, but they make no real attempt to explain why it’s happening. The closest they come to giving their audiences actual reasons for the problem is when they blame increased demand from China and India or tensions in the Middle East.
But like the dotcom bubble of the 1990’s or the housing crash earlier this decade, the oil boom is not…
August 27, 2008 | Read More
