GAS PRICES GOING UP, SWITCH NOW

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OBAMA ELIMINATES OIL SUBSIDIES

YOUTUBE: BILL MOYERS JOURNAL
"BILL MOYERS JOURNAL | Bill Moyers on Big Oil | PBS"
Let's not forget the endless Oil Wars. Let's end that, too.


GREEN, ALTERNATIVE, RENEWABLE & SUSTAINABLE ENERGY WILL BENEFIT

Better Dump That Gas-Guzzling Truck, Get A Hybrid While You Can

We were as distraught with record high gas prices as the next guy, who shot himself on the gas line. But we were almost as upset when gas prices went precipitously down again, and everybody forgot about conserving, clean energy, going green. It could have been a pivotal moment in our nation's history. Instead, just as in the aftermath of every previous oil shock since the 1970's, nothing happened. We got our asses kicked by skyrocketing oil & gasoline prices, long lines at the pump, odd-even license plate number rationing, and the near collapse of the U.S. auto industry, not to mention the rest of the economy. But as soon as the threat had subsided, we went back to happily guzzling gas, happy as pigs in their own sh*t.

Well, here we are again. Only this time, we're all in it really deep. We have no choice but to change our behavior, for our own good. But we won't. Even with the Bush Recession, mini-cars and hybrids are being passed up for big engines and bigger bodies, just like the bad old days. People are still cruising around aimlessly in their giant SUVs & pick-up trucks, wasting gas for fun & Big Awl profit.

In all fairness, most of us have no choice. Decades of foolish pro-car pro-gas planning and development has left us without public transit or access to alternative energy for private transit. Your taxes, investments and consumer spending have all been channelled into supporting a chaotic system that is now choking us all, economically, environmentally and socially. How much time do you waste every day all tied up in traffic, or running dozens if not hundreds of miles from home to school to work to shopping to school to home and back again the next day, unable to walk anywhere and unwilling to hassle with your meager local mass transit sustem? Our civilization is now built around the car, and it will take a major committment to change that.

That's what Obama is doing right now, today, with this announcement. Take heed. As he promised in the campaign, renewable and alternative energy is a priority. Curing the car cancer is the solution to many of our problems. But only by prolonged and concerted government intervention, or the kind of private market manipulation seen in every oil crisis since 1970, sustained this time, will people themselves change. So get ready for some strong medicine, and some howling from the oil companies & Wall Street's personal representatives in government & the media: The Republicans and their tame corporate talking heads. Don't listen. Tune them out. Turn them off. Do the right thing. And this time, stick with it.


YAHOO NEWS
"Obama budget rescinds oil, gas industry tax breaks"
It's time to start kickin' gas!

' President Barack Obama outlined a budget plan Thursday that would end $26 billion in oil and gas industry tax breaks, point to a new direction for dealing with nuclear waste and shift government aggressively toward helping to develop renewable energy sources. Obama called the tax break to the oil and gas industry "unjustifiable loopholes" in the tax system that in most cases other companies do not get. '

REUTERS
"UPDATE 2-Obama budget cuts oil tax breaks to raise billions"
Take THAT, Big Awl! Go ahead & secede, Texas!

' * Oil tax break cuts to raise $26 bln over 10 years * DOE 2010 budget to total $26.4 billion * Funding for solar up 83 pct, wind up 36 pct * Plans to fill up emergency oil reserve (Recasts lead, adds comments from Chevron, U.S. energy secretary, details of solar, wind funding) The budget proposal, which must be approved by Congress, includes ending "unjustified tax loopholes" for oil and gas companies that would raise $26 billion over the next 10 years. The White House rejected as "unfounded" industry claims that ending the tax breaks would take a significant toll on U.S. oil and gas production. It said oil and, to a large extent, gas are internationally traded commodities whose prices are determined on the world market. "The oil and gas subsidies are costly to the American taxpayer and do little to incentivize production or reduce energy prices," the administration said in its budget. '

MCCLATCHY
"Obama boosts biofuels, saying climate and economy will benefit"
Now let's get rid of ethanol. And no more boondoggles for Big Ag.

' President Barack Obama on Tuesday announced plans to boost the use of biofuels to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and break the country's dependence on foreign oil. The plan to increase the use of new biofuels would reduce petroleum use by 11 percent in 2022, add jobs and significantly cut climate-damaging emissions, administration officials said. If the country does nothing to curb oil consumption, oil use would increase by 40 percent by 2030 and emissions of heat-trapping gases would rise by a similar amount. "Our economy is at the mercy of foreign oil producers, and everybody feels that when it hits us at the pump," Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson said. '

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