This has probably already been posted earlier (I didn't have time to read through all 9 pages of replies) but let the MARKET determine what people buy. - - Politicians love to apply the 'do something' syndrome when the voters are screaming at them. (Funny how they weren't complaining a few years back when you could find gas at 99 cents a gallon and small oil companies were going out of business.) - - If gas goes high enough people will switch to other vehicles and/or change their driving habits. There will be enough of an incentive for companies to invest in new fuel saving technologies and alternative energy. Get over your tendency to cry and have 'Mommy' (government) take care of you. They can't even run the post office monopoly, how are they going to be wiser than the Market?
but if your talking about a free riegn capitalism then slavery is permitted, and dumping of raw sewage in your backyard. Regulation helps smooth out people who would take advantage of the system. Sort of like some republicans and k streeters.
The problem with letting the market decide when to switch to alternative energy (if even technically feasible) is that (a) it may only do so when oil prices are high enough to seriously damage the economy, and (b) the time needed for such a switch is in decades. The market is too short sighted.
I think a more careful observation of countries where raw sewage is being dumped and slavery is being practiced would find that it is definitely not in free capitalist countries, but rather some of the most brutal, non-free nations on the earth. It isn't hard to observe if one only wants to really see what's out there.
my original point was that it is great to say lets get alternative fuels, nuclear, build refinaries, get oil in anwar, and etc. but that would take years to get online. And every country with huge oil supplies are holding the US hostage. Even nature is holding the US hostage. What if this year multiple cat 4 hurricanes hit the oil fields. And take them out for months if not years. If the american public can tolerate sacrificing constitutional rights for the sake of national security, they can give up suv and big trucks.
I don't recall our "sacrificing constitutional rights"... though I do remember their being taken away by Gummint and their telling us "it's for your own good".
This was only for business owners using the vehicles for business purposes. Of course I'm not saying they needed an SUV for their business purposes or that you really needed a legitimate business use but that was the only way to claim the deduction. So you helpless cry-babies want the government to save you from the evil oil companies? This is the same government who constantly creates undesirable, unintended consequences of every law they create. And by the way, these worthless pricks rarely even write their own legislation nor do they routinely read what they are voting on. How can you reasonably think that these bumbling buffoons could fix anything? Well I'll tell you they COULD do something REAL, but they won't. They could repeal all the laws that they have created that restrict supply. A few that come to mind would be drilling in ANWR and the US continental shelf. There are many restricting the building of refineries and many more mandating certain product mixeswhich happen to be different in almost every state. And how about the BIG one. They could drop the price $10-15/ barrel if they would just stop meddling in other countries business.