Aestu wrote:
Any morally responsible culture sets definite boundaries on what is or is not acceptable.
We do. Saying what you think/believe/feel is perfectly acceptable. Punching a guy in the nose, stabbing him, shooting him, vandalizing his property, looting, raping, and just generally being a hooligan because someone said something you didn't like isn't. Those are the boundary in our culture...at least until people starting wetting their fucking pants about a mob of jackals thousands of miles away who think their beliefs give them justification to kill.
Aestu wrote:
How would you go about lowering oil prices - and what benefit would there be to doing so?
A majority of the costs associated with energy in general and gasoline in particular are the result of bad regulation/policy. I don't remember how many different blends of gasoline are in use in the US, but it's way too many...something different for every region. The EPA should mandate a single blend for the entire nation, and any region where it's determined a different blend would be necessary, either through SCIENCE!!! or state law would be obligated to put up infrastructure (i.e. refinery capacity) to provide for their region. I'd also open up more drilling, and any company that has a federal land lease for the purpose of drilling would be required to produce and sell from their wells or they'd lose their federal lease. Then we'd need to find a way to discourage exporting oil and keeping it in the country...though with oil being the global market it now is, that would probably be difficult and entail some onerous and questionable policy. I'd also end the ethanol mandate, because ethanol is an inefficient fuel, it damages most engines it's burned in over time (even some of those designed for its use) and diverts food resources into the energy market. There are plenty of viable alternatives to making ethanol out of corn, such as scrub grasses. Unfortunately, the corn/farm/ethanol lobby is pretty powerful in DC, and the various subsidies and breaks for American ethanol has, as usual with protectionist policy, also driven up the cost.
Probably the first and best thing to do would be to pass legislation barring the states from regulating environmental policy and making it a federal matter. This would stop California from enacting ridiculous laws that, because of the size of the market in CA, ends up becoming the defacto rule elsewhere...as much as I'm usually for state's rights, there's not really any state's rights when one state can decide, without representation from the others, how certain products must be made/sold/used because that state's population is so large. I would not allow the EPA or other agencies to develop its own rules, either. Those rules usually carry the force of law, and some of them are more than a little ridiculous. The agencies could submit proposed rules, but the congress would need to debate on, alter, and approve any of those suggestions.
I'd build more refineries, move to using nuclear where it's possible, and make a contest out of alternative energy much the way the space prize thing had random citizens shooting Red Bull rockets into space it. Then I'll fall asleep sitting in my chair...be back in a few hours. Sleep now.
Your Pal,
Jubber