Hillary's plan to lower gas prices--would it work?

[Aloha Spirit]

From Larry King last night.
It's impossible for me to objectively evaluate anything Hillary says at this point... so I'm asking you guys. Would this work?

"Here's what I would do if I were president right now.

Number one, I would investigate these prices. I'm not satisfied at all that there isn't any manipulation going on or price-gouging. I still remember during the Enron scandals finding out that there were traders in energy who were deliberately manipulating the market so that consumers in California, Oregon and Washington paid higher electricity prices.

I would also release some of the oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which would help bring down the price. It usually does.

I would also consider a gas tax holiday, if we could make up the lost revenues from the Highway Trust Fund. And my suggestion would be a windfall profits tax on the oil companies. They've been making record profits in the last years.

But I would also do something else. As president, I would make it absolutely clear that the United States was not going to be over the oil barrel any longer, that we were going to get serious about energy independence.

You see, I think, Larry, if we did that, if our president said that tomorrow and really meant it and worked with Congress to pass every piece of legislation we needed, that he has so far resisted supporting, the oil companies and the oil countries would drop the price, because they would want to lull us back into a false sense of security ... so that maybe we wouldn't follow through. But this time, we must follow through."

[cliffordu]

1. Nope

[rndmprsn]

2. talk talk talk...thats all we ever get from her...

at least with Obama we get inspiring speeches...with clinton we get BORING policy wonk talk that i bet even she knows she will run away from

[rinsd]

4. And we wonder why the media focuses on bullshit versus policy.

:eyes:

[Aloha Spirit]

24. agreed..

:think:

[futureliveshere]

3. It could work, but is not very diff from BO

especially on the green jobs and energy independence he goes further.

[rinsd]

8. I also saw it as similar.

Though she did not elaborate particularly on her green ecomony in that blurb, here's a summary of her plan (more detailed papers are on the right hand frame).

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/energy/

And in the interest of equal time here's Obama's

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/energy/

[Aloha Spirit]

16. Wow, first time I read them side by side. They are very similar. Thanks

[Rabrrrrrr]

5. It certainly wouldn't hurt.

We definitely need some kind of investigation into what the hell is going on.

AND we need energy independence.

The only thing I'm sad that's missing in her ideas is to start pumping shitloads of money into research into non-petroleum energy. That's where we get true independence from foreign oil - by not using oil at all.

[Ichingcarpenter]

6. The Gas Tax Holiday is a scam-I have a bridge in Minnesota to prove it.

The Clinton proposal could cost the government some $9 billion dollars - and more than 300,000 jobs.

The tax supports the federal Highway Trust Fund, which finances road projects nationwide and is already facing a $3.4 billion shortfall, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials says. The American Society of Civil Engineers says every dollar invested in highway infrastructure generates $5.40 in economic benefits through reduced delays, improved safety and lower vehicle operating costs. And the federal transportation department says every $1 billion in highway spending creates 34,779 jobs.

[Aloha Spirit]

9. agreed.

[nebula]

22. Building more highways isn't the answer

There needs to be much greater investment in a world-class public transportation, which the US desperately needs, and lacks. We need to reduce dependence on fossil-fuel burning private vehicles. But public transport isn't profitable for the auto companies and the oil companies, so it doesn't get done; a point Obama has made.

[Ichingcarpenter]

25. Not building more but at least repairing what we have

The gas tax holiday is pure pandering that puts only $17 dollars into the pocket of the consumer a month.
and creates nothing in return. No jobs, no world class public transportation and no repairs for our crumbling
bridges that we now have.

[Aloha Spirit]

26. Agreed, but I think Clinton was saying she'd offset the lost revenue with windfall profits tax. n/t

[nebula]

29. Interesting.

[Joe the Revelator]

7. Thats a pretty basic plan, nothing new or earth shattering there.

[Aloha Spirit]

10. To me, she sounded paranoid whenever she started talking about the oil companies and oil producing

countries. The fact that they are equivalent in her mind scares me.

[DrDan]

11. I think it would be a mistake to take from the reserves

we need that in case there is another huge natural disaster - like another hurricane Katrina.

Why are they not talking about some tax breaks for those driving hybrids or very-fuel efficient cars. The candidates do not want to piss-off the SUV drivers. But .. . in my mind, those doing something to cut oil demand deserve some reward.

A tax holiday? Sounds good as election fodder - but its about time someone pay attention to the crumbling infrastructure - particularly the state of our bridges.

I don't like $3.50 a gallon gas - but it is still about half of the price in Europe.

[Aloha Spirit]

13. agree on all points! Sure, gas is cheaper in Estonia, but we have it pretty good.

[Connonym]

30. yup, I hate paying the high prices but one thing it does do is make you think

about wasting gas and really that's what we should focus on, reduced consumption. Granted the prices are very hard on people scraping by but that's because the economy sucks. We should be doing a helluva lot more to figure out alternatives instead of simply artificially lowering the prices. We need to think long term on this problem instead of acting like there are no consequences to our actions.

[DrDan]

33. exactly - and we should have started thinking long-term

years ago - instead of easing up on the big-3. We should have increased the pressure for more fuel efficiency and fuel alternatives. Give them some tax incentives - but put the pressure on.

We certainly made huge progress before - it can be done again.

[Connonym]

34. well WE did start thinking about that a long time ago when Carter put solar panels on the White Hous

and one of the first things Raygun did was take them down. As usual, I blame the republicans who don't want to lose oil income because regardless of whether or not we're actually running out I'm sure we're being gouged on the prices. Considering that we're in a war for oil right now actually we're probably getting a deal on the actual price of gas but getting screwed by our tax money funding the war to profit big oil. That's the part that's really revolting.

[Aloha Spirit]

36. What makes me even sadder is that the war in Iraq absolutely won't pay for itself in oil revenue or

savings. Remember when we were told that oil production would finance the war?
I remember.
I'm pissed.
I wish I could vote against Bush every day.

[Aloha Spirit]

35. Agreed. Why don't people talk about Hydrogen fuel cells? That was huge a couple years ago...now it's

biofuels this, biofuels that, which from a purely thermodynamic point of view, doesn't work so well except in tropical/subtropical latitudes... from what I've read.

[Speck Tater]

12. There is nothing that ANY politician can do about the price of oil.

Private oil companies, for all their huge profits, only control 10% of the world oil. The rest is in the hands of state-owned oil companies. There's nothing any US politician can do to influence them, or to alter the basic facts of supply and demand. Both China and India are growing demand so rapidly that supply cannot keep up. Low gas prices are gone forever, and soon gasoline itself will be a thing of the past.

[Aloha Spirit]

14. What about improving the economy and the country's credit rating? If the value of the dollar weren't

so low, gas wouldn't be so expensive.

[Tatiana]

15. I have been thinking about her comments and I think she might be on the right track.

Of course, states like my own did investigate the oil companies for price manipulation. For a while, the prices came down (drastically). So having the feds launch an investigation would be a good thing, IMO. Windfall tax does not sound all that bad to me in the wake of ExxonMobil reporting record $10 billion profits.

[Aloha Spirit]

18. Yeah, I knew Obama proposed a windfall tax, didn't know Clinton did. Hard to argue that they're

bought off by oil companies.

[Vinca]

17. The gas companies have already been hauled before Congress

and nothing happened. John McCain is proposing the gas tax holiday which amounts to about 20 cents a gallon. Whoop-di-doo. Releasing gas from the strategic reserve would have little, if any, impact. It's time to have another Apollo project and find other sources of energy than gas and oil. Nothing else will work and it is decades overdue. We should have been working on this since the Carter administration.

[Aloha Spirit]

19. I'm crossing my fingers for genetically engineered petroleum-producing bacteria...

http://smarteconomy.typepad.com/smart_economy/2007/09/gm-bacteria-mak.html

[Spider Jerusalem]

20. No, it can't work.

Supply and demand. World oil production has plateaued and demand is very near to total available pruduction with razor-thin margins. India and China have added significantly increased demand pressure. The US dollar has lost over fifty percent of its value against the euro over the course of the past 7 years. And Americans assume in this environment that, not only do we have an inherent right to continue consuming forty percent of the world's oil (with five percent of the population), we have a right to do so cheaply (and never mind that we have to import over half of what we use and domestic production hasn't been enough to meed demand since the 1970's). This is just a ridiculous and unrealistic attitude. The way we live in this country is going to haver to change drastically in order to adjust to a future of higher fuel costs and supply constraints; the fuel market is not going to adjust to us.

[Aloha Spirit]

21. I think it's 25% of the world's oil, but I get your point. Something fundamental has to change in

the way we think about transportation.

[Spider Jerusalem]

23. Sorry, my mistake...25% of the world's oil and 40% of total global energy production.

[uponit7771]

Decent ideas I just don't trust she'll do them. She was sleepy when she said those things

[zulchzulu]

27. It was a bullshit answer

Tapping into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve would not necessarily bring the oil prices down. It would also be foolish to do so now since we are not at a stage where those reserves need to be used.

Taking the gas tax away would provide very little relief and would take away monies toward highway repair and other safety measures. So we make our roads worse and get little from a few cents off a gallon of gas? Bullshit.

Investigating the price gouging is pretty easy and Kerry, Obama and others have asked for such for a few years and nobody seems interested.

It's easy to see why gas prices are too high. OPEC and international oil companies have controlled the output of oil and make unprecedented profits. Having two oil men in the White House kind of makes it easy for that to happen.

Clinton voted against the Energy Bill (which had tax cuts taken away for energy companies) that actually had some green legislation in the bill. What's her solution? Yack her piehole and get nothing done.

[lumberjack_jeff]

28. Gas is valuable because dollars are not.

It's simple.

You want to get a handle on gas prices, get a handle on the falling dollar.

[Aloha Spirit]

31. I agree that's part of the current situation... definitely more significant than what you'd assume

based on news reporting.

[sandnsea]

32. It's not that simple, but that is key

And the fact that she didn't say it is because the cheap dollar helps corporations around the world. They sell in foreign dollars, convert it to US dollars, make a ton of paper money. She is so phony, and you still don't see it.