Energy Crisis
By by Familia Intl
The price of oil and gas has skyrocketed over the years. The oil companies are proclaiming they are losing profit but yet can retire their CEO at $400 million dollars. What is the real reason why the prices are skyrocketing? Is it because most of the worlds precious oil and gas reserves are run by the greedy and money hungry? Or, is it just improper management and poor spending. Well, the real problem is the little people of the world who need this energy to survive. We have to spend too much in the way of energy. In the state of Connecticut, the price at the pump has risen to $3.17 per gallon on average. The gas tax is around 43 cents. Now the senate proposed that we cut gasoline taxes to about 7 cents per gallon and increase the state income tax as an offset. According to the CCEA by doing this, will not be a significant savings to the taxpayer. The increase in the state income tax required to offset the proposed 7 cents per gallon gasoline tax uct can be achieved by an increase of the highest marginal tax rate from 4.5% to 4.5864%, which accounts for approximately $53 in additional tax per year for an average taxpayer in Connecticut earing $62,000 adjusted gross income. Assuming a conservative 20,000 miles per year for an aveage driver and 22 mpg for an average car, we get savings on approximately $64 per year from the gasoline tax cut, which leaves an average taxpayer almost indifferent to the proposed change. (Remi-Model, University of CT p 2) Maybe we should do what Brazil has done and use sugar for fuel. Or even corn or rice, the bottom line something has to be done to regain control of this dilemma. Car Companies are proclaiming that they will try to cut the cost of fuel consumption by building hybrid vehicles that allow the car for a short period of time, to run on some other fuel source that may be less expensive than gas. The most popular type is electric hybrids that run on rechargeable batteries. To help push consumers to buy hybrids the IRS has initiated a hybrid vehicle tax credit for the year 2006. This tax credit would be between $250 and $3400 depending on the fuel economy and the weight. This is a pretty good incentive if you are only looking at the the credit alone. But the

cost of the vehicle including regular maintenance and the 3-year battery replacement puts you back into the poor house. It has estimated that the battery alone, that you must replace every four years is $4000 dollar. To me I don't see the savings. Then there are scientists who are trying to come up with other fuel sources that people can use and will be less expensive. But due to litigation and the power of the big oil companies, none of these newer, cleaner, cheaper fuel sources will come to market. Why, because it will drive a hole right into the Oil Mans wallet. And you, know what that means, they would have too more frugal with their money. Tighten their expenses, maybe even lay off a few trillion people, and then the big Oil companies will blame the consumers as the reason why they just eliminated 50 million jobs. The Senate proclaims they are trying to ease the cost for us at the pump and otherwise by initiating rebate checks, taxing the oil companies, domestic drilling etc... Some say its because most people just drive too much and the cars that they drive are too big. Well that may be true, but how can that be alleviated with the demands of the car dealerships getting Americans to drive big cars. It seems to be at no end our energy crisis, until we learn to preserve and conserve. The average person has the answer with them. Instead of using two, figure out a way to just use one. We as Americans are just super-sized individuals trained that way by the media and every other subliminal message monger out there. We have to understand that we will lose this fight if we don't take drastic steps to improve our consumption. What needs to be done is the Senate should tax the oil companies or allow a tax break for the States where oil and gas are supplied. The tax break can possibly alleviate the price of fuel maybe a few cents a gallon. But will this be enough? With my estimation this should be especially when Americans are traveling more often, which is usually during the spring and summer months. The senate should allow for the tax break on gasoline just for a short while to he the economy regroup, cut their losses and then gain control. Rough Draft Persuasive Paper Khurram 3 5/13/2006

Make love—and war

Ports in a storm

Miracle postponed

The dial-high club

Detroit’s race against time

Hello again, I’m Vista

High seas, high prices

A question of character

Mechel bashing

Membership required

We strive to provide only quality articles, so if there is a specific topic related to business that you would like us to cover, please contact us at any time.

And again, thank you to those contributing daily to our Price of Oil website.