It would lump all the vehicles under a single regulation, but also give manufacturers flexibility so large SUVs wouldn’t have to meet the same requirements as smaller cars.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
The gas boycott of May 15 did not work! So how about trying to boycott a brand of gas? Start with Exxon/Mobil the week of July 1-7. If they’re unable to sell gas, they may have to cut prices. On July 8-14, boycott Citgo; on the July 15-21 week, boycott Sunoco; and on July 22-28, boycott Gulf. Gas stations will need to get rid of the gas to keep their allotment. Reducing demand for gas can help. Do it by keeping vehicles tuned, tires properly inflated, not racing from one red light to the next, turning it off at the coffee shop; walking inside a place instead of waiting at the drive-up. TAD BONIEWSKI Scotia
Won't work. I've already boycotted Exxon/Mobil for years. And from what I hear, they just turn around and sell the gas to another company, so they don't lose. You just have to cut back to bring down the price at the corporate level. Or leave the county and/or state on the tax level.
First I am laughing like Senders! Like I said before, taxes will never ever come down. We have to get these dimwits to cut spending for heaven's sake.
I have not gone to Exxon/Mobil for about 1 year now. I refuse!
Now, where ever I go to get gas, I ask them where they get it from. They have all pretty much told me the same. They said that they all go to the port and get their gas. It all comes from the same place. However, each gas station has their own regulations regarding what additives go into the gas. So they purchase the gas that has the additives specific to their named distributor. For example, Exxon has different additives than Cumberland or Sunoco and so on. They are all private and can price accordingly. They all say that it is the additives that are key in determinating the price.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Those 'special' additives keep other people in business and lets them advertise "accordingly"----I hear folks saying"I always buy Hess, never used anything else, I like them"......although with the prices as they are, it has leveled their 'playing field' and now we are someone else's pawn......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
They also have their own gas station. It's only 1 right now, in Omaha, Nebraska, but they're looking at expanding over time. Here's an article on MSNBC about it (I found this to be a bit choppy, but it might just be my computer.)
Excellent sites BK....if you notice I took the Albert Einstein quote from one site and added it to my signature.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
I also have started to buy my gas outside of Schenectady County. The Getty just across the Thruway bridge by Exit 25 of the Thruway is in Albany County and is just $2.99, as compared with a lowest in Rotterdam right now of $2.97. So, spending $51.00 on gas today means that I gave about $2-$3 to Albany County instead of to the Schenectady County Bureaucrats.
Froma Harrop Say no to NOPEC, impose gas tax Froma Harrop is a nationally syndicated columnist.
There’s a bill floating around that would let our government sue OPEC members for driving up the price of oil. Surprise, surprise, it passed both houses of Congress. President Bush has vowed to quash the brilliantly named “NOPEC” (the No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act), but the appearance of sticking it in OPEC’s eye has such bipartisan appeal that the measure may enjoy a veto-proof majority. This could be an emotionally satisfying way to lash out at $3-a-gallon gasoline, but it’s not energy policy. NOPEC would accomplish nothing except perhaps ignite a trade war. America’s relationship with foreign oil producers is fundamentally sick. Time to move out of the house, once and for all. The way to get OPEC out of our lives is to stop buying so much oil, and the way to do that is to force its price up, up, up. At a certain pain point, Americans will choose fuel-efficient cars, houses and appliances — and they will turn to wind, solar and other clean-energy sources. High oil prices make these alternatives more competitive. That’s not to dismiss the legal arguments behind NOPEC. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is indeed a conspiracy to fix prices. U.S. antitrust laws have been used to break up other international cartels for such products as computer chips and vitamins. Why couldn’t we do the same with oil? OPEC claims, and American courts have ruled, that its members are acting as sovereign governments (rather than companies) and therefore not subject to our antitrust laws. NOPEC, however, would empower the Justice Department to sue OPEC members under the Sherman Antitrust Act — and seize their U.S. assets to pay for damages. One thing Americans don’t need right now is a ratcheting up of international tensions. Furthermore, OPEC members could retaliate by removing their investments from the United States. And they could replace oil sales to the United States with increased business in energy-hungry China and India. But Americans truly don’t need more babying by their politicians over the price of gas. Their devotion to low gas prices is responsible for our current humiliating role as supplicant to countries that pay terrorists to attack us. Rather than wait for the sheiks to raise the price, we should be doing it ourselves through gas taxes. That way, we could keep the extra revenues while providing the incentives to unhook ourselves from foreign oil. This is hardly a new idea. The third party presidential candidate H. Ross Perot proposed a 50-cent-a-gallon tax way back in 1992. Last fall, N. Gregory Mankiw, former chairman of Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers, called for a $1-a-gallon hike in gas taxes for reasons enumerated. The new revenue could be used for health care, cutting the national debt or whatever. Actually, the government could throw the money into the Potomac, and the tax would still make sense because it would push Americans to use less gas and develop other energy sources. It could even end the need to raise mileage standards in vehicles. The higher cost of filling up would automatically create a bigger market for fuel-efficient cars. In the past, when oil prices approached levels that would encourage conservation and a move to alternatives, the Saudis would ramp up production to lower the cost and thus keep us addicted. And so why does Congress now want to do this for them? OPEC is not our friend or partner, and so let’s end this bad marriage. Trying to make it behave more to our short-term liking hurts America’s long-term interests. We need a divorce, and only an intelligent energy policy will get it rolling.
Drivers set gas consumption record WASHINGTON — Record-high prices for gasoline this year haven’t dampened U.S. drivers’ demand for fuel, an industry trade group said Wednesday. Drivers consumed a record 9.2 million barrels, or 388 million gallons, of gasoline on average every day during the first half of the year, up 1.5 percent from last year’s levels, the American Petroleum Institute said in its midyear review of fuel statistics. While daily domestic gasoline production rose 3.4 percent to a first-half high of 8.9 million barrels, that wasn’t enough to meet demand. Gasoline imports rose to a record of more than 1.3 million barrels per day in the second quarter after stalling in the first quarter, the trade group said. The industry was plagued with a series of unplanned refinery outages this year that have caused gasoline inventories to run below year-ago levels. But the API said capacity expansions at existing refineries helped the industry boost production levels. Earlier this week, a draft report by the National Petroleum Council, an industry advisory group to the federal government, said conventional crude oil supplies won’t keep up with growing global demand in the next 25 years.
ALBANY Electric cost hike puts NY near top of list BY JASON SUBIK Gazette Reporter
New data from the federal government shows that the cost of electricity in New York state increased by 12 percent between March 2006 and March 2007, a rate a little more than twice the national average. The Energy Information Administration, which tabulates energy statistics for the U.S. Dept. of Energy, is reporting that the average cost per kilowatt hour in New York has gone from 12.99 cents in March 2006 to 14.54 cents in March 2007, while the national average rose from 8.39 cents per kwh, to 8.77 cents. The New York Business Council, a lobbying organization for businesses throughout the state, blames the high cost on lack of in-state electricity generation capacity and an overreliance on natural gas, as opposed to cheaper coal energy. “New York state does not have enough generating capacity to sustain a supply of reliable, affordable and secure electricity,” Business Council Communications Director Matthew Maguire said. “We’ve been on the wrong end of this [list] for quite some time.” New York’s residential electricity costs were even higher — 16.59 cents per kwh in March, a 5 percent increase from the previous year and 62 percent above the national average. Commercial users paid 14.77 per kwh and industrial users paid the wholesale price of 8.47 cents per kwh. The New York Independent System Operator, which manages New York’s deregulated electricity transmission grid, estimated in June that New York should have 16.5 percent reserve electricity capacity this summer, due in part to a peak demand drop from a cool summer. The NYISO expects that the total availability of electricity to the bulk electricity grid will be 43,771 megawatts: in-state generation of 39,770 MWs, 2,921 MWs of out-ofstate supply committed to New York and 1,080 MWs of special case resources. The NYISO forecasts summer 2007 peak electricity usage to reach 33,447 MW, almost 500 MW lower than last year due to cooler anticipated weather. Officials with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority estimate that prior to New York’s deregulation of its electricity grid in 1996, the state had about 28 percent reserve capacity. After deregulation, Gov. George Pataki and the state legislature authorized legislation to fast track the siting of power plants throughout the state. That program expired in 2003. “There were a number of projects that were approved under the old law that were never built,” NYSERDA President Paul Tonko said. NYSERDA estimates that power plants capable of producing 4,000 MWs of additional electricity capacity were approved under the “Article 10” fast track program that have not been constructed. Business Council President Kenneth Adams has argued that Gov. Eliot Spitzer should ease carbon dioxide emissions standards and the Republican-led Senate should loosen its stance on more nuclear power in order to facilitate a compromise to reauthorize Article 10. “Obviously as we encourage new production that should be in keeping with the environmental goals of the state, so as to produce clean energy — I think they go hand in hand — and the incentives in a reauthorized outcome should encourage that,” Tonko said. The states with more expensive power included water-isolated Hawaii, 18.73 cents per kwh, and New York’s neighbors to the east: Connecticut, at 16.41 cents, and Massachusetts, 15.13 cents.
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