<\/p>\n
The <\/p>\n 1.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n It In 2. More, as bad or worse, is unnervingly likely<\/a>. <\/span>The Bush administration and Republican This 3.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Big 4.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Big A Solution<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n There is a remarkably easy way to begin shifting to a sane and sustainable way of having energy without tying ourselves to these corporate monsters who are destroying our planet. I have mentioned it before and I will again. Impose a carbon tax on all processes that release CO2, a tax proportional to the CO2 emitted. Begin relatively small, so as to avoid severe disruptions, and have it increase at a predictable and significant rate. REDUCE taxes on Social Security, which will reduce the burden businesses bear for wages and keeping the impact revenue neutral. Let people and their creativity discover how best to avoid taxes by reducing CO2 emissions. Perhaps more than any other measure this would harness private initiative and creativity with the public good.<\/font><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Gulf coast oil spill is offering several important insights beyond the obvious, if Americans will but look. Obviously it is an environmental disaster of enormous proportions, a crime against nature and spirit, but sadly, there is considerably more this corporate disaster and probable crime brings to the surface.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111,109],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-environment"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nGulf coast oil spill is offering several important insights beyond the obvious,
\nif Americans will but look.
\n<\/span>Obviously it is an environmental disaster of enormous proportions, a crime against nature and spirit, but sadly, there is considerably more this corporate disaster and probable crime brings to the surface.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\ndemonstrates that oil extraction has become so potentially devastating even in
\nmonetary terms that companies are demanding special exemption from financial
\nresponsibility for the damage they cause. Victims and taxpayers pay, CEOs and
\nshareholders get the swag. <\/span>This is
\nexactly like the nuclear industry’s demand that there be a cap on damages for
\nwhich they can be held accountable.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nfree market terms that these liars and hypocrites like to hide behind, we cannot
\nafford<\/i><\/span> to obtain energy in this
\nway. <\/span>If we could companies could
\nget insurance to cover the damages.
\n<\/span>They would not need special exemption. <\/span>No more clear signal could be sent that we need to wean
\nourselves from such dependence.
\n<\/span>It’s so simple only a right winger would have trouble understanding.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n
\nParty did enormous damage to this country dismantling legally required agencies
\nand regulations. <\/span>The Obama
\nadministration has been remiss in undoing the damage. <\/span>The law has been systematically ignored<\/a> as has the testimony
\nof scientists all <\/span>to serve the desires of big oil. Meanwhile
\nindustry whores in both parties do all they can do prevent the oil industry
\nfrom being held accountable for the damage they do to this country. Republican
\nLisa Murkowski blocked attempts <\/a>to raise the liability cap from its tiny $75
\nmillion to $10 billion. <\/span> But Democrat Marie Landrieu is no better<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n
\nlawlessness is possible because of the triumph of two falsehoods (Full
\ndisclosure: I once accepted both as true and will happily take on anyone who
\nstill does). <\/span>First, that business
\nself interest will lead to safe practices. <\/span>Second, that the government is inherently less competent
\nthan private industry. <\/span>Accepting
\nboth theses has gradually led to the inane babble that passes for policy debate
\non the right and all to often elsewhere.
\n<\/span>They are false.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nbusinesses are intrinsically dishonest<\/a>. We are discovering that the ‘safety devices” promoted by the oil companies are
\nas honest and competent as the leadership by the financial industry. <\/span>At a time when sending and storing data
\nis at its quickest and easiest, the last 7 hours of crucial data on the
\nDeepwater Horizon rig are somehow “missing.”<\/a> Testimony suggests that BP is lying<\/a>. We are learning that there was widespread cheating<\/a> on safety tests. We are learning that crime pays for BP because fines are so small relative to
\nthe money made by breaking the law that breaking the law is their preferred
\napproach<\/a>. <\/span> We are learning that “Beyond Petroleum” BP spent as much on advertising in two
\nyears as it did on alternative energy in six<\/a>, all the while emphasizing its
\ncommitment to such goals in public. If a corporate CEO or spokesperson is speaking, the odds are good we can assume
\nlies are being emitted. <\/span>It’s not a
\ncertainty, but it’s a probability.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nbusinesses are intrinsically sociopathic.
\n<\/span>Who but a moral monster would give just rescued oil workers papers to sign
\n<\/a>claiming they saw nothing amiss and were not injured after being rescued from
\nthe Gulf? <\/span>Just like the moral
\nmonster Don Blankenship<\/a> in West Virginia, we now find that they also ignored the most basic
\nrequirements for their supposedly anti-blowout devices. <\/span>They rejected technologies in use
\nelsewhere that would likely have prevented the disaster, and argued against
\nregulations <\/a>requiring greater safety. BP apparently had no back up plans<\/a> if something went wrong. And they attempt to control information<\/a> to prevent our knowing just how
\ndisastrous their mess is.<\/span><\/p>\n