America needs therapy

[Harmon Seaver]

Declan McCullagh wrote:

>
> I think this canard has been debunked on the list in the last week.

     No, it wasn't debunked at all -- no evidence was given, only
unsupported suppositions. If you only take one subsidy alone, the military
cost, oil has an absurd price, and that cost is rapidly going thru the roof.

> US Defense Department spending allocated
>                    to safeguard the world's petroleum resources total some $55 to $96.3
>                    billion per year. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a federal government
>                    entity designed to supplement regular oil supplies in the event of
>                    disruptions due to military conflict or natural disaster, costs taxpayers an
>                    additional $5.7 billion per year. The Coast Guard and the Department of
>                    Transportation's Maritime Administration provide other protection services
>                    totaling $566.3 million per year
>
>
>
> The current cost (say, US$1.50 a gallon) would probably be closer to half
> that without taxes on each step of the process.

http://www.icta.org/projects/trans/rlprexsm.htm

>

>>                    The federal government provides the oil industry with numerous tax
>>                    breaks designed to ensure that domestic companies can compete with
>>                    international producers and that gasoline remains cheap for American
>>                    consumers. Federal tax breaks that directly benefit oil companies include:
>>                    the Percentage Depletion Allowance (a subsidy of $784 million to $1
>>                    billion per year), the Nonconventional Fuel Production Credit ($769 to
>>                    $900 million), immediate expensing of exploration and development costs
>>                    ($200 to $255 million), the Enhanced Oil Recovery Credit ($26.3 to $100
>>                    million), foreign tax credits ($1.11 to $3.4 billion), foreign income deferrals
>>                    ($183 to $318 million), and accelerated depreciation allowances ($1.0 to
>>                    $4.5 billion).
>>
>>                    Tax subsidies do not end at the federal level. The fact that most state
>>                    income taxes are based on oil firms' deflated federal tax bill results in
>>                    undertaxation of $125 to $323 million per year. Many states also impose
>>                    fuel taxes that are lower than regular sales taxes, amounting to a subsidy of
>>                    $4.8 billion per year to gasoline retailers and users. New rules under the
>>                    Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 are likely to provide the petroleum industry
>>                    with additional tax subsidies of $2.07 billion per year. In total, annual tax
>>                    breaks that support gasoline production and use amount to $9.1 to $17.8
>>                    billion.
>>
> As for ethanol, which you cite, if it's so splendid an alternative, one
> would think that ADM could survive without such lavish corporate welfare.

     Biodiesel is a much better alternative than ethanol, but each has it's
place. All farming is subsidized at this point, biofuels have the potential
to make farming profitable again. Besides, as long as the oil industry has
even greater corporate welfae payments, why not? Speaking of program
subsidy, how about this:

>                    Government support of US petroleum producers does not end with tax
>                    breaks. Program subsidies that support the extraction, production, and use
>                    of petroleum and petroleum fuel products total $38 to $114.6 billion each
>                    year. The largest portion of this total is federal, state, and local
>                    governments' $36 to $112 billion worth of spending on the transportation
>                    infrastructure, such as the construction, maintenance, and repair of roads
>                    and bridges. Other program subsidies include funding of research and
>                    development ($200 to $220 million), export financing subsidies ($308.5 to
>                    $311.9 million), support from the Army Corps of Engineers ($253.2 to
>                    $270 million), the Department of Interior's Oil Resources Management
>                    Programs ($97 to $227 million), and government expenditures on
>                    regulatory oversight, pollution cleanup, and liability costs ($1.1 to $1.6
>                    billion).
>



--
Harmon Seaver, MLIS
CyberShamanix
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