At 3:07 PM 10/11/4, Keith Nagel wrote: >Hi All. > >Despite Horaces right wing leanings, he has a secret >lefty side and has been consulting with the John Kerry >Campaign over their energy policy.
This is of course a big surprise to me! 8^) I forgot much of the legacy plan I proposed, and upon skimming over it just now I am somewhat surprised at all the time I took to write it and how much detail I bothered to put in it. The main goal of the Energy Legacy Plan I posted a couple years ago was actually to de-politicise energy development as much as possible. Kerry's trust fund idea does indeed seem on the surface to do that to some extent, but any trust plan would have a much better chance of (the required) long term survival with bi-partisan support. Also, I wouldn't call Kerry's plan a "plan" at his point, but rather a somewhat nebulous goal. I reposted the legacy plan, so it is now hopefully available to all in a fairly readable format at: <http://www.escribe.com/science/vortex/m31918.html> >Consider point one. > >http://www.johnkerry.com/pdf/pr_2004_1011b.pdf > >(1) Create an Energy Security Trust Fund. John Kerry and John Edwards >will move us to a new energy future by creating an "Energy Security >Conservation Trust Fund" that will leverage funds to develop new clean >fuels and foster innovation. The Fund will provide incentives to automakers >to develop and consumers to purchase more fuel-efficient cars. It will >also enable us to increase our use of renewable fuels (including ethanol >and biodiesel) and to develop clean and efficient hydrogen fuel. By 2020, >we 20% This is of course a really wimpy goal compared to what's possible. Spending money on incentives for consumers to buy cars, if that's what this includes, sounds like a boondoggle. If it means increased taxes on fuel provides consumer conservation incentives, then that makes some sense at least. I thought my plan for taxing 3 billion a year for 20 years was pretty wimpy too, compared to what is really needed. With oil at 40 dollars a barrel now, though, the plan would look a lot better now than what I forcast. >of our fuel sources will be domestically-produced alternative fuels. >The fund will be capitalized with over $20 billion from existing federal oil >and gas royalty revenues. > >It looks like he didn't quite get his way with how the money >is to be used, but he got the trust fund idea taken up. Congrats Horace! > >K. Thanks, but I doubt congrats are deserved. It is so darn unfortunate that we have already squandered over 20 years since oil was at $60 a barrel (in today's dollars), and that the american public is now driving SUVs and vans like there is no tomorrow. Most people are probably unaware that $40 a barrel is (was) actually cheap, deceptively cheap, compared to what may be coming if well planned concerted long term action is not taken. We don't need a few measly incentives, we need a wake-up call. Regards, Horace Heffner
