It was great to see President Obama take a strong stand on Net Neutrality. It is hard enough to get decent service from a monopolized system like we have in Albuquerque where our internet service is pretty much limited to Comcast. Recently, our neighborhood listserv has been full of complaints against Comcast. Even though your bill goes up every couple of months, you get worse and worse service.
It was also good to see President Obama and the Chinese leadership make progress on climate change mitigation. Most see it as a step forward. Now, the President needs to bite the bullet and kill the Keystone Pipeline. This would show a real pushback against the oil and gas industry who value profits over planetary health.
In the not so good news department, I have a feeling that these plummeting oil prices will really smack down New Mexico's budget. It is funny to see how Governor Martinez and her minions are always complaining that the Federal dollars being pumped into our state are bad because we depend on them too much. But at the same time they ignore the immense amount of money from oil and gas taxes and royalties that keep out state afloat. And don't forget the major portion of that money really is not a tax, but a payment for state and federal owned oil and gas on public lands.
It was also good to see President Obama and the Chinese leadership make progress on climate change mitigation. Most see it as a step forward. Now, the President needs to bite the bullet and kill the Keystone Pipeline. This would show a real pushback against the oil and gas industry who value profits over planetary health.
In the not so good news department, I have a feeling that these plummeting oil prices will really smack down New Mexico's budget. It is funny to see how Governor Martinez and her minions are always complaining that the Federal dollars being pumped into our state are bad because we depend on them too much. But at the same time they ignore the immense amount of money from oil and gas taxes and royalties that keep out state afloat. And don't forget the major portion of that money really is not a tax, but a payment for state and federal owned oil and gas on public lands.
3 comments:
US producers need a crude price of $80 to be profitable (vs $50 for the Saudis, according to Oil Price.net. It closed at $77.18 today which means no new drilling and eventually capping wells.
http://oil-price.net/en/articles/oil-price-fall-threatens-us-oil-production.php
Cheaper gas is a boon to folks who are at the bottom of the economic scale IF they are smart enough to take advantage. Gas savings stays in their pocket instead of flowing to the oil companies AND to state coffers. A Hell of a lot better for lower income folks than a half billion in state spending.
Valid point. Tax revue losses are talked about in millions and billions while lost oil company profits due to declining prices are in the billions and trillions.
In other words, the amount of wealth involved is almost disguised by only talking about state revenues. The amount that does or doesn't stay in peoples' pockets amounts to a lot more. The $50 and such we all spend every time we fill up adds up to a lot.
What also has to be kept in mind, though, is that governments are lacking in money because of extreme changes to taxation since Reaganomics set in.
In my view the way the wealth is distributed needs to be reconsidered. We get a bigger chunk, government gets a bigger chunk, oil company owners get a job.
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