Quote:
Originally Posted by Lake-Effect
The Forbes article - sorry, op-ed from an oil industry exec - while accurate as far as it goes, is the bullsh!t. It completely ignores externalities and excludes tax credits as subsidies. The FF industry pays honking taxes because of the honking profits they generate.
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We've covered this before in (much) earlier threads. The FF industry's historical profits are actually lower than many other major industries, and much more volatile. Do we need to re-post those
charts & graphs again?
You don't dispute the accuracy of an article penned by an expert in the industry but call bullsh!t nevertheless. What are the "externalities" you claim he ignored? What tax credits are you referring to, and why do you think they equate to direct payments? Because that's what
Rolling Stone thinks, what the NRDC assumes, or what the highly politicized, agenda driven IMF believes you should think?
The wars and ongoing
security provided by the US and other govts were and are paid for by taxpayers to protect what is still -- like it or not -- a vital national resource. These are the same taxpayers who would be required to pay again for these "externalities," only this time at the gas
pump. Meanwhile the US has reduced CO2 emissions, through technological innovation alone, more than any other
single nation on the planet. But we are told that we need to pay higher
taxes for an indispensable commodity or we are all doomed, all while
China outpaces the rest of the world in its own emissions, to say nothing of spreading coal plants to other
parts of the developing world.
Meanwhile we have also consistently been told that the FF industry is singled out, thanks to their corrupt representatives in govt, for special tax breaks and "subsidies." Whether you choose to use the commonly held defn or ones cooked up by partisan sources, the message is that the industry is getting special treatment which is artificially lowering the price of their product. It turns out that this is about as truthful as the alarmism SailOar has been shoveling out about methane over the past 10 years of natural gas production.
Most people have no illusions about the obvious downsides of fossil fuels and our need to eventually wean ourselves off of it. But you can
work towards realistic solutions without demonizing an entire industry for merely producing what the world has been demanding. But then it's always been human nature to find convenient villains, and it's certainly easier to vilify than it is to
work towards solutions in a responsible manner.