Prometheus » Blog Archive » Dr. Chu Goes to Washington

Not going to raise the price of energy, huh? And promising clean coal, huh?

Welcome to Washington, Dr. Chu!!

Will a Mileage Tax Replace the Gas Tax? - Green Inc. Blog - NYTimes.com

Toward the end of my article today about states looking at raising their gas taxes, I mention the million-dollar question for the future:

How will states generate money to patch up highways when the gas tax is gone — that is, when cars become so fuel-efficient that they no longer run on gasoline?

Jolley: Five Minutes With Ron Sparks, Alabama’s Agriculture Commissioner - Cattle Network

OK, let’s be honest, frequently the feds will propose something that causes a sane human being to back up a step, blink twice and the words “Say what!” tumbles forth from incredulous lips all across the country. Of course, when the idiocy of the concept reaches critical mass, someone in government denies everything. Some smart, inside-the-beltway observer called it ‘plausible deniability.’

‘P.D.’ simply means that their new re-explanation of events could be true in some alternate universe, maybe not here. But it coulda’ happened.

Such was the case for the cow tax, a border line insane idea that folks at the EPA were mulling over late last year. Public reaction around my house was either absolute horror or fits of hysterical giggling. Wild-eyed suggestions about how a cow’s ‘emissions’ could be measured quickly went from the merely silly to border-line obscene. I imagined someone at the EPA might actually listen to these ideas and take them seriously during the mandatory comment period.
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[Sparks] It truly is one of the most ridiculous ideas that has ever been proposed. First, how can you really regulate such a thing in an objective way? But also, it would destroy the U.S. livestock industry. Agriculture is the backbone of our country and it goes hand in hand with national security. If we cause our own farmers to go out of business, then we will be forced to rely on other countries for our food and that simply should not be an option for the United States.