[LadyRuby]

Wow, actually mentions "peak oil."

Blowhards think windfall - Commentary: Profits are the wrong target of oil anger

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '.')..Since the early 1970s there has been talk of "peak oil" scenarios where demand would quickly eclipse supply. (We've had tastes of it during oil embargoes.)

Since, oil companies having been struggling to find new reserves and the amount of oil imported by the U.S. has skyrocketed; in 1998 oil imports finally exceeded 50% of domestic consumption. So we knew these times would come.

Lawmakers could have done something along the way. They could have provided incentives for the development of other sources of power, but they succumbed to the powerful lobbying of the automotive industry and oil producers. Facing public pressure, they now want to turn on these industries.

A "punishment" tax, as The New York Times calls the windfall tax, isn't in order. Nor should oil firms be "cast as villains" as The Los Angles Times reports.

An incentive program as President Bush promoted in his State of The Union speech should be expedited.

That likely won't occur. Instead, there is desperate search for a fall guy.

...

[Leanan]

At that wacky fringe site, MarketWatch, no less.

[gego]

In a free economy, when something is scarce, the price increases as an incentive for suppliers to supply more. To impose a tax on "excess profits" (whatever that is) takes away incentive for oil companies to risk money on finding more oil.

There are plenty of examples of individuals or companies making huge sums, but nobody seems to be screaming about their good fortune because they are not paying them directly at seemingly rapidly increasing rates. Look at how much Bill Gates made, or look at the recently reported multi-million contract for Katie Couric to be anchor of one of the nightly news shows; can you imagine making millions per year just to sit in front of a camera and read from a teleprompter.

In my opinion, the only profits which are obsene are those derived from grants of government privelege, like the cable companies who seem to increase prices at will since they have little competition. And this is nothing compared to the huge profits that banks make, operating with the government granted privelege of loaning new money into existence.

The American public for the most part are brain dead.

[TommyJefferson]

The redneck socialist hillbillies where I live are jumping up and down screaming for the government to "Do Something!" to the "big oil companies".