Oil Painting

March/24/2008 20:35PM
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Nancy Pelosi wants to tax the Big Oil Companies who do business in the US and take that money for renewable fuel development. One congressman who is against this calls it the “no energy, energy plan”. Here’s how I would explain it. 


Let’s say my great grandfather took a risk and used money he really couldn’t afford to spend and bought an oil painting in 1902. The painting has been in the family for all this time and this year we decide to sell it. It’s now worth $1,000,000. Ms. Pelosi says not so fast. This is a windfall profit and the government is entitled to some of this over and above the normal tax rate. Plus, it’s an “oil” painting and anything that has anything to do with oil is bad. We are going to tax you 40% on revenue from the painting and use that to fund an effort to help artists find a renewable medium to paint with.


First, we just take our painting overseas and sell it and tell Ms. Pelosi to stuff it. Second, how practical is it to spend untold millions on something that may never work and that artists will reject and just go elsewhere to do their painting. So, the US loses any tax on my painting and all artists leave and no art is ever sold here.


Lastly, if anyone does sell art here they just raise the price to reflect the tax.


So, if an asset has value somewhere in the world and one country wants to tax that asset vs.. the world market, that country will assure itself that less of that asset will be made available to that country. If that country is really short on that asset, this is a very bad idea. 


We believe we have an environmental problem. We are going to address the problem before we have any workable solution to the problem. Is it just me or is this backward? Does it make more sense to tap the assets we have available first, then address the problem. If we put all alternatives off limits: nuclear, Alaskan natural gas, Alaskan Oil, coal gasification plants, off shore oil, etc. , then we say we know there is a solution out there somewhere when we aren’t sure there is one. If we are wrong, we are dead. What ever happened to hedging your bets?


The one-two punches of the Pelosi tax and the carbon cap will add a dollar to your gasoline price in addition to what the world markets add. 


The widows and orphans in New England can tell you about this. The powers to be have resisted putting natural gas pipelines to New England for the last 50 years. They also stopped terminals for NGL tankers. Hence, fuel oil is the only option. Freezing and bankrupting widows and orphans doesn’t bother the politicians one bit. Robert Kennedy Jr. has made a career of trying to reduce the cost of fuel oil there. Thank God the guy has a voice that sounds like a cat being boiled in water while someone is scratching a blackboard or he might be running for President.  Of course, none of his solutions include nuclear, pipelines, or wind anywhere the Kennedy Compound. I’m just glad I don’t live up there.


Now Pelosi is going to do it to the whole country. Not if I can help it.

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Comment (1)

  1. Ken Dozier says:

    The World should be glad I am not a Postal Worker, or own a firearm. I am totally frustrated and disgusted with all of this, and continue to see nothing being done to deal with the issues we raise.

    I now understand how some people decide to go Postal, because when you lose hope and feel no one is listening to you, sooner or later, people have no choice but to take matters into their own hands. I am not advocating violence, but Going Postal does seem to get more attention and action, which is pretty sad…..

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