[OFB Cafe] Bio Fuels

[Chris Olson]

From: Timothy Butler 
Sent: Monday, July 21, 2008 11:45 PM
To: An Open Discussion Forum on Just About Everything,Especially for Techies. 
Subject: Re: [OFB Cafe] Bio Fuels


> Oh yes, in a time when gas prices are rising rapidly, the ideal  
> solution is to increase taxation on the oil companies so they have yet  
> another reason to raise prices. Makes sense to me!

Tim, please don't give me that short-sighted right-wing reasoning.

I would hope it would make sense to you, otherwise you don't understand much about business economics.  If the oil companies were taxed on par with other multinational industries, and with the biofuels industry, they'd have to pay more taxes.  This gives the company incentive to do one of two things
  a.. either invest the profits in tax-deductible investments so as to not pay tax on them (alternative energy sources) 
  b.. lower the inflated price of their product to more reasonable levels to get into a lower tax bracket

Either method will allow the alternative fuels industry to compete with Big Oil, which it can't do now because if you're a biofuels producer in the US all you have to do is wake up in the morning and you'll get slapped with another new tax law.  Competition is what it's all about and Big Oil has none.  They have a monopoly and they own the political system to keep it that way.
--
Chris