Responding to the massive BP oil spill, Congress is getting ready to quadruple-to 32 cents a barrel-a tax on oil used to help finance cleanups. The increase would raise nearly $11 billion over the next decade.
The tax is levied on oil produced in the U.S. or imported from foreign countries. The revenue goes to a fund managed by the Coast Guard to help pay to clean up spills in waterways, such as the Gulf of Mexico.
A barrel is 55 gallons, isn’t it? Perhaps less after refining, but still, a tax of only 32 cents a barrel is surely only about 1 or 2 cents a gallon at the pump, maybe 25 cents a fill-up, and people are objecting to that much of an increase? Unbefreakinglievable!
I say increase the tax ten-fold, so that a gallon of gas costs $5 and a plastic Happy Meals toy makes people consider going to a real restaurant instead.
I wrote about this here.
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p>The extra cost would be no more than about 1.3 cents per gallon, depending on which oil derivatives bear the tax.
First, the BP spill is an exceptional event, which is why the powers that be are having such a tough time taming it. The overall record of the industry has been so good that complacency has set in.
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p>But I am leery about the creation of yet another unaccountable slush fund.
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p>Can we issue a bond or debt exclusion to cover these costs witb the tax dedicated to THAT spill, plus 20 percent for immediate response to future emergencies? And then end it? With future bonds being issued IF there is another spill?
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p>I’ve seen such funds created before – and the money diverted to other ‘useful’ programs, Social Security being one example.
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p>Before we slap the tax, can we get a handle on making it pay as you go instead of perpetual?
I just think there should be a much bigger federal tax on oil, and I think all taxes should go into the general fund, and clean ups should be funded by the general fund. There should only be a general fund. I don’t understand why we can only spend revenue from gas taxes on more transportation, it seems like a cruel joke, like spending the money from cigarette taxes on more smoking.
is considered by many to be synonymous with “urinated away.”
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p>Then, when the next accident happens, someone will want a new special tax, which should really be a general fund tax, and then when there is another incident… ad infinitum.
Shouldn’t taxes be levied on things according to their overall cost to society, and money spent on things according to their overall benefit, to avoid the inefficiency of trying to match revenue to spending in convoluted schemes? I think there’d be more scrutiny of spending and less waste if every interested party had an eye on the same pile of money.
From a revenue raising perspective, you do have to levy some taxes on beneficial activities. But absolutely taxes should be levied on every activity which has negative externalities, and should be levied in a way that makes the cost of doing the activity for the individual/corporation equal to its true cost to society. Gas (and other pollution) taxes are way too low.
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p>Why? Because the DoD doesn’t like competition?
Utter fantasy. look at that list, and don’t neglect to scroll down to the bottom. If you do, it will not escape your notice that the sheer number of oil spills per year since 2000 is enormously larger than the years before. Because most spills are never reported in our media, so you’re not aware of them, does not mean the industry has a good record. It does not.
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p>The reason that the “powers that be” are having a hard time dealing with the BP mess is the same reason that we never invested enough in alternative energy sources: the oil industry has a major ownership stake in our government.
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p>What is exceptional about the BP catastrophe is its size and the callous disregard for standard safety procedures (at least, they are standard in most of the rest of the world) exhibited by the three responsible corporations.
you want to say “those are all ship accidents” (they aren’t) – see this and click “Offshore Blowouts” in the list to the left of the picture.
A deep-water drilling operation in the Gulf of Mexico. Largest spill ever. Nine months to finally kill it. Seems like something BP should have been prepared for, no?