Agora Metaphora: End the Fossil Fuel Subsidy

Quotes

Il y a eu des gens qui ont dit autrefois: Vous croyez des choses incompréhensibles, contradictoires, impossibles, parce que nous vous l’avons ordonné; faites donc des choses injustes parce que nous vous l’ordonnons. Ces gens-là raisonnaient à merveille. Certainement qui est en droit de vous rendre absurde est en droit de vous rendre injuste. Si vous n’opposez point aux ordres de croire l’impossible l’intelligence que Dieu a mise dans votre esprit, vous ne devez point opposer aux ordres de malfaire la justice que Dieu a mise dans votre coeur. Une faculté de votre âme étant une fois tyrannisée, toutes les autres facultés doivent l’être également. Et c’est là ce qui a produit tous les crimes religieux dont la terre a été inondée. --Voltaire
There are certain things in which one is unable to believe for the simple reason that he never ceases to feel them. Things of this sort - things which are always inside of us and in fact are us and which consequently will not be pushed off or away where we can begin thinking about them - are no longer things; they, and the us which they are, equals A Verb; an IS. - e.e. cummings
But when fascism comes it will not be in the form of an anti-American movement or pro-Hitler bund, practicing disloyalty. Nor will it come in the form of a crusade against war. It will appear rather in the luminous robes of flaming patriotism; it will take some genuinely indigenous shape and color, and it will spread only because its leaders, who are not yet visible, will know how to locate the great springs of public opinion and desire and the streams of thought that flow from them and will know how to attract to their banners leaders who can command the support of the controlling minorities in American public life. The danger lies not so much in the would-be Fuhrers who may arise, but in the presence in our midst of certainly deeply running currents of hope and appetite and opinion. The war upon fascism must be begun there. - John Thomas Flynn
One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back. – Carl Sagan
A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death. -- A. Einstein
There's nothing more remote from what we have been discussing than a conspiracy theory. If I give an analysis of, say the economic system, and I point out that GM tries to maximize profit and market share - that's not a conspiracy theory; that's an institutional analysis. It has nothing to do with conspiracies. That's precisely the sense in which we've been talking about the media. The phrase "conspiracy theory" is one of those that's constantly brought up, and I think it's effect simply is to discourage institutional analysis. -- Noam Chomsky
I think people are beginning to realize that you can't have pockets of prosperity in one part of the world and huge deserts of poverty and deprivation and think that you can have a stable and secure world. -Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Be the change you wish to see in the world. -- Gandhi
A city is maintained by proportionate reciprocity. People seek to return either evil for evil, since otherwise (their condition) seems to be slavery, or good for good, since otherwise there is no exchange: and they are maintained (in an association) by exchange. — Aristotle
A competitive culture endures by tearing people down. -- Jules Henry
Competition, which is the instinct of selfishness, is another word for dissipation of energy, while combination is the secret of efficient production. -- Edward Bellamy
Conservatives complain that we have thrown billions at our socioeconomic problems with no results. From this correct observation they mistakingly conclude that since little can be done about these problems within the present system, then the problems are insoluble. For the elites who own this country, if wiping out widespread poverty and starvation entails changing the entire system and jeopardizing elite class positions, then better to have poverty and starvation. -- Michael Parenti
It has always seemed strange to me...The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second. -- Steinbeck
Many people take the absence of competition to mean that one must be wandering aimlessly, without any goals. But competing simply means that one is working toward a goal in such a way as to prevent others from reaching their goals. -- Alfie Kohn
Many were increasingly of the opinion that they ’d all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. And some said that even the trees had been a bad move, and that no one should ever have left the oceans. -- Douglas Adams
One of the few good things about modern times: If you die horribly on television, you will not have died in vain. You will have entertained us. -- Kurt Vonnegut
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. --Albert Einstein
Pity the nation that has to silence its writers for speaking their minds. Pity the nation that needs to jail those who ask for justice, while communal killers, mass murderers, corporate scamsters, looters, rapists, and those who prey on the poorest of the poor roam free. -- Arundhati Roy
The aim of argument, or of discussion, should not be victory, but progress. -- Joseph Joubert
The policeman isn't there to create disorder; the policeman is there to preserve disorder. -- Richard J. Daley
The prevailing mode of competition in American culture thus continues despite convincing evidence that it is damaging to physical, spiritual, emotional, and social health. And what is the reaction of members of the helping professions? Are we creative agents of social change or are we dispensers of Band-Aids to the injured and facilitators of adjustment to "the way things are"? -- Vera J. Elleson
The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. - -Bertrand Russell.
The world is out of its mind with stupidity and the worship of stupidity. You’re either willing to be part of all time, or you’re going to limit yourself to being part of the current time. -- Sean Penn
There is no absurdity so palpable but that it may be firmly planted in the human head if you only begin to inculcate it before the age of five, by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnity. --Arthur Schopenhauer
We destroy the ... love of learning in children, which is so strong when they are small, by encouraging and compelling them to work for petty and contemptible rewards - gold stars, or papers marked 100 and tacked on the wall, or A's on report cards, or honor rolls, or dean's lists, or Phi Beta Kappa keys - in short, for the ignoble satisfaction of feeling that they are better than someone else. -- John Holt
You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time. -- Abraham Lincoln(?)

27 May 2012

End the Fossil Fuel Subsidy

Bernie Sanders and Keith Ellison have put forward a plan to cease the tax exemptions utilized by oil, coal, and gas subsidies. Said Mr. Sanders, "We are here not just to announce new legislation, but to send a message that it is time to end the absurdity of taxpayers providing massive subsidies to hugely profitable fossil fuel corporations," Bernie said. "In these difficult economic times, it is imperative that we support the taxpayers of this country and not the fossil fuel industry -- one of the most powerful special interests in the world.”

COMPREHENSIVE FOSSIL FUEL SUBSIDY REPEAL TO
SAVE TAXPAYERS OVER $110 BILLION
Endorsed by:
350.org, Taxpayers for Common Sense, Friends of the Earth, Sierra Club,
Defenders of Wildlife, Earthjustice, Oil Change International
ORIGINAL SPONSORS
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN)

IT IS TIME TO END FOSSIL FUEL WELFARE
At a time when we have a record debt, Congress should not continue to give away taxpayer money to the established, highly profitable fossil fuel industry.

Fossil fuels are subsidized at nearly 6 times the rate of renewable energy. From 2002 to 2008, the US Government gave the mature fossil fuel industry over $72 billion in subsidies, while investments in the emerging renewable industry totaled $12.2 billion.
The fossil fuel energy industry does not need taxpayer subsidies. In 2011, the Big Five oil companies alone made $137 billion in profits. During the first quarter of 2012, the Big Five oil companies earned a combined $33.5 billion, or $368 million per day.
Unlike renewable energy incentives which periodically expire and require Congress to approve extensions, the fossil fuel industry has dozens of subsidies permanently engrained in the tax code from decades of successful lobbying. In 2011, the oil, gas, and coal industries spent a combined $167 million on lobbying the federal government.

STOP MORE THAN $110 BILLION IN FOSSIL FUEL GIVEAWAYS OVER NEXT TEN YEARS
The bill would comprehensively abolish fossil fuel subsidies, saving taxpayers billions of dollars. It ends tax breaks, eliminates special financing, does away with taxpayer-funded fossil fuel R&D, and sets fair royalties policies to ensure the fossil fuel corporations pay their fair share. Examples of these giveaways include:

OIL, GAS, and COAL TAX BREAKS

$14 Billion Saved by eliminating the intangible drilling deduction.
$12 Billion Saved by repealing a 2004 law that allows fossil fuel corporations to take deductions aimed at helping American manufacturers by claiming they are manufacturers.
$6.8 Billion Saved by closing the loophole that allows corporations like BP to deduct money they spend cleaning up their own oil spills and paying damages.

SPECIAL FINANCING

$2.4 Billion Saved by stopping fossil fuel companies from investing through Master Limited Partnerships, an option not available to clean energy businesses.

TAXPAYER FUNDED R&D

$3.7 Billion Saved by shutting the federal Office of Fossil Energy.

ROYALTIES

$10.6 Billion Saved by recouping lost royalties for offshore drilling in public

Read the bill here.

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27 May 2012

End the Fossil Fuel Subsidy

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