Susuto

“But here’s what’s scary: our problem is so much worse than you think. We have no energy strategy. If you are going to use tax policy to shape energy strategy then you want to raise taxes on the things you want to discourage — gasoline consumption and gas-guzzling cars — and you want to lower taxes on the things you want to encourage — new, renewable energy technologies. We are doing just the opposite. // Are you sitting down? // Few Americans know it, but for almost a year now, Congress has been bickering over whether and how to renew the investment tax credit to stimulate investment in solar energy and the production tax credit to encourage investment in wind energy. The bickering has been so poisonous that when Congress passed the 2007 energy bill last December, it failed to extend any stimulus for wind and solar energy production. Oil and gas kept all their credits, but those for wind and solar have been left to expire this December. I am not making this up. At a time when we should be throwing everything into clean power innovation, we are squabbling over pennies. // These credits are critical because they ensure that if oil prices slip back down again — which often happens — investments in wind and solar would still be profitable. That’s how you launch a new energy technology and help it achieve scale, so it can compete without subsidies.” … temporarily removing the gasoline tax is a shortsighted foolhardy mistake … as the waning end of the Peak Oil curve looms near, we are experiencing the first signs of the oil crunch, as international demand continues to rise and petroleum supply cannot keep up with the demand and prices increase … it is now at a point where alternative energy sources offer price per watt than fossil fuels and the only hitch is the cost of installation … we need to be taking that gasoline tax money and investing in alternative energy sources and the creation of a new alternative energy infrastructure … to fail to do so will mean higher prices in the long term, and further down the line with no preparation for the switch, an inevitable conclusion of nationwide rolling blackouts … not a future I look forward to — and a future we can fix if we see this energy crisis as a challenge to America — one that we can solve with a concerted effort …