Thursday, October 19, 2006

Proposition 87 (Alternative Energy): NO

  • Proposition 87 Alternative Energy. Research, Production, Incentives. Tax on California Oil Producers
    Should California establish a $4 billion Clean Alternative Energy Program to reduce California's oil and gasoline consumption by 25 percent through incentives for alternative energy, education, and training?
$4 billion program, but not focused where I assumed it would be. Instead of reducing dependence on foreign oil, this actually adds massive taxes on California oil producers. It's not important to me that they don't pay taxes in California but they do in Alaska and Texas - this would be a step toward pushing their business away from California, instead of away from foreign oil producers (and bringing more revenue from within our country's borders).

At some point it will be time to focus on the oil cartel within our borders, but I don't think it should be a top priority for this election cycle with so many other priorities. This was the one Proposition that I thought I knew how I would vote without even doing any reading, but that turned out not to be the case.

3 comments:

Chris said...

Thanks for the comments, david and norkizzle.

Norkizzle, I think you've got a potentially-persuasive argument, but I'd like to find verification from impartial sources on the following:

1) a tax on oil extracted in California (a tiny sliver of the global market) will not noticeably raise gasoline prices in either the global or California markets.

2) the tax will also not do anything to push business out of California EXCEPT for maybe a bit of ChevronTexaco and ExxonMobil business, as they may choose to slightly decrease their operations here because of slightly increased operating costs.

All I know is every little fluctuation seems to drive gas prices up like mad...

Chris said...

Thanks for the reading material, norkizzle, and I like your point here:

"I'd also suggest placing the burden of proof on someone asserting that this tax WILL cause a rise in gas prices or an exodus of business."

Also, your points are well taken - I need to investigate but you might have swung me. :-)

Chris said...

After chewing on Norkizzle's last argument, I think it's a good one. I've decided to vote YES on Proposition 87. That said, I would also love to see a tax on FOREIGN oil that I could back as well.