Another Tax Witchhunt

Is the Glass half-empty, or half-full? James Hamilton suggests that at least for the next year, it is too early to tell. Readers can assess the Threat level best with the understanding it is the most productive Oil fields which are starting to decline; a most definite half-empty Scenario, if major new fields cannot be found. Are We going to be hit with a Crisis next year? The Answer to that Question will restrict the Crisis only to the Speculators in the Short-run. The Speculators, though, will be bad enough to rob Us of vast financial resources needed for devotion elsewhere.

I will state Now that We need a liquid Explosive which must meet a great number of conditions to match Our desired Needs. The very first Condition must be that it is explosive under only very precise detonation sequence, relatively only reproducible in a complex, machine-fired order. It must have a consistently fluid nature at all temperatures, and must be produced from waste biomass. Fresh Water restrictions will insist that the Conversion process achieve liquidity with the use of Seawater; hopefully, with even a by-product consisting of additional Fresh Water. The prime Solution would be that the Salts of Seawater could be utilized both to maintain the fluid nature of the mix, and be utilized in construction of the explosive itself; all in the effort of eliminating by-product Disposal Costs. The Output of Production plants must be huge in amount to meet Market needs; We are talking about a million barrels per Day production plant capacity. It is the Reality of Energy discussions that no one can talk about ‘Mom and Pop’ stores for Energy production, there being no Relief within such Concepts.

The Research must be conducted before the Capitalization can begin, and Oil Company taxation is the superior form to generate sufficient revenues. I would advocate a Windfall Tax upon all Energy Profits exceeding 40% on all Profits above normal Production Costs, if at least 30% of such Profits are not devoted to Research and Development of new Energy sources, whether such development is traditional search for Oil capacity, or the new Search for alternative Energy through Research and Development. Such a Windfall Tax will seem alarmist and unfair, with a discriminatory impact on one industry; the fact remains that the Energy industry has a responsibility to provide Product to their Customers, and should not be allowed to evade this responsibility by extraction of Profits without provision of future Product. lgl