Obama Tire Guage Energy Plan

Barack Obama just suggested that Americans can help conserve energy by inflating their tires. The McCain campaign is making a bit of a joke from this suggestion. In fact, this morning the McCain campaign distributed tire pressure guages to reporers and emailed supporters offering them “Obama Energy Plan” tire pressure guages if they donate $25.

Is this whole tie pressure bit just a lot of hot air? Not really…although it won’t be a major solution to our energy problem, little things do help. Keeping tires inflated properly can improve gas mileage 3-4% resulting in a savings of about twelve cents a gallon, according to the overnment’sd website www.fueleconomy.gov

According to the Energy Information Administration, in the US we consume 9,286,000 barrels/day (390 million gallons/day) of gasoline. Three percent of that consumption is a savings of 11.7 million gallons a day. Here’s some interesting related stats:

Consumers would spend 46.8 million dollars less a day for gas (assuming $4 per gallon price)..so that’s 1.7 billion dollars a year less that consumers would be spending on gas that could be spent elsewhere in the economy! Interesting numbers…the fact is that we’re consuming so much oil that even a minor savings can mean a substantial dollar impact!

No, I think Obama’s point about inflating our tires was presented incorrectly (at least in tone) as a major solution to our problem, but it has a bigger dollar impact than many of us might think! Don’t these dollar numbers surprise you? Of course, to get 100% of Americans to inflate their tires (or do anything) is unrealistic..but even if half of the population did it, the impact could still be helpful.

Political energy tracker launched

As Presidential election campaigning heats up, everyone is increasingly interested in the energy positions and viewpoints of the Presidential candidates. It is a topic I recently started following since it is so critically important for the future of this country. That’s why I decided to launch tommorrow, an Obama and McCain news watch service that tracks the latest news stories. You’ll read their comments about energy and comments others are making about these candidates. I hope you find the service as useful as I think it will be for everyone. Enjoy the service starting this Monday. To access the service, all you have to do is click on the category Presidential Politics near the top of this site and select which of the two candidates you want to read about. Every day new stories will be available.

Energy Manhattan project?

Why aren’t we treating the high priced gas crisis like we treated the need to develop the A bomb during World War II? The Manhattan project was an all out effort by the government and private industry to develop the atomic bomb…we did it in record time and the course of history was changed forever!

We put a man on the moon because Kennedy inspired us and dedicated talented folks made it happen even though some people laughed and said it couldn’t happen…Why the hell don’t we have a Manhattan like project going on at this very moment but for alternative energy? The lack of an effort like this makes me mad as hell!…Mad for the sake of the security of this country…mad about what these high prices are doing to our economy and the people on tight budgets who are struggling now because of these prices.

Before we decide on who will be President, we should demand that the candidate we choose commit to an alternative energy Manhattan project…and not just rhetoric but a comprehensive detailed plan for how to make it happen!

Here’s a thought- a group of bright…no… brilliant minds from multiple disciplines from private industry should develop a written position piece and proposed plan for the Manhattan project starting right now.

Some say we should begin drilling in more places now to give oil prices some relief…If this is our only alternative, perhaps we should…but only as an interim measure. We need a longer term comprehensive Manhattan type project that is more environmentally friendly but with limited impact on our free enterprise system.

Why don’t we have the Oil Manhattan Project? Is it too controversial for our politicians? Are lobbying groups blocking this? Has no leader in business or government suggested this idea? Is the public not smart enough to demand that a project like this begin now? What do you think???

Limited expert support for gas tax holiday

Experts have been critical of Hillary Clinton’s and John McCain’s proposal to institute a gas tax holiday this summer. And Jonathan Alter of Newsweek piled on: “Hillary Clinton has now joined John McCain in proposing the most irresponsible policy idea of the year — an idea that actually could aid the terrorists.”- Surely, however, there must be someone out there not associated with a politician or a candidate who supported the idea of a gas tax reprieve — especially if, as Clinton suggests, it would be paid for by an excess profits tax on oil companies.

In the end, every single analyst I surveyed judged the gas tax holiday proposal to be, roughly speaking, a silly, superfluous, or outright pandering idea. “What would happen more likely than not, gas taxes would be cut, but pump prices wouldn’t go down, service stations would just continue charging what they are charging,” he said. “I’m a Libertarian and I don’t mind that. But you might not be a Libertarian and you might believe the federal treasury needs that money… “I think it is close to political pandering,” said Max Schulz, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. “It is bad policy and political gimmickry. You have to address what is driving the price of crude oil, even problems with the weak dollar. That would make sense,” he said, “but if you remove the tax now, the things being funded with the money will still need funds. He went on: “All of these candidates claim to be environmentally conscious people, so what do they want to do? Bob Sussman, an energy analyst with the Center for American Progress, and, for full disclosure, a supporter of Barack Obama, saw little benefit or popularity to either Clinton or McCain’s proposal.

“Rather than indiscriminately suspending the gas tax, if we have a revenue source here to help people in need, we out to target the money to people who really need it. And if you suspend the gas tax you are giving a small break to every body instead of a significant break to the people pinched by the high prices,” he said. To the extent that McCain and Snowe’s proposals use general revenue funds to offset the hit to the trust fund, that concern is addressed.

To read the full article, go to the the HuffingtonPost.com. Click here

Other related stories below:

Editorial: Is fuel tax holiday a good idea? - There is no denying gasoline prices have gone through the roof. In most states, $4 per gallon is the minimum. Cheney shoots down the “gas tax holiday” - John McCain has really been championing this idea of a “gas tax holiday” for a while now, and the current Vice President is shooting it down. Odd that the sitting veep would so publicly go against the candidate from his own party. … Mankiw vs. DeLong on McCain’s Corporate Tax Cut Proposal: Not Such … - It started with Greg’s Sunday column in the NY Times, where he first jests about McCain’s idea for a gas tax holiday, but then praises the …bigger idea that Mr. McCain and his economic team have put forward: a cut in the corporate tax … Gas Tax Freeze Eases Pain at the Pump - … the state’s ability to complete road construction and maintenance, the two chief recipients of gas tax revenues. Republican legislators in Michigan are pursuing a similar form of a gas tax holiday. For more information, click here. … Tax incidence - Tax incidence is the theory of who actually pays a tax. Let us consider the case of the gas tax holiday proposed by John McCain and supported by Hillary Clinton in the US. By announcing that there would be reduced tax on petrol over … Talleyrand and the gas tax holiday - I’m on record as saying that Hillary Clinton’s advocacy of a gas-tax holiday, while it wasn’t good policy, didn’t rise to the level of a crime. Judging from last night’s results, however, it was worse than a crime: it was a mistake. … Electeds Go to the Mat for Cheap Gas - In Albany, Senate Republicans have adopted the state gas tax “holiday” as their issue of the moment. Since the largely-ridiculed measure is going nowhere in the Assembly, Joe Bruno and colleagues can circulate petitions and distribute …