re: #10 Obdicut

Oh, you’re seriously proposing an instant tax that would affect every farmer, every truck driver, etc overnight? I thought you meant a tax on the energy companies, not a tax at the pump. That would be absolutely disastrous.

Not when [mostly] offset by lower income and property taxes. And of course you’d need to give folks a little time to prepare. But the point is to remain mostly revenue neutral.

And please tell me you don’t think there’s a substantive difference between taxing a producer and taxing their product. You really think the cost won’t melt its way down to the end product? Come on, dude.

It’s not the producers we’re after, not if they are changing their portfolio of energy products. Why would you spend millions to audit whether a conglomerate like BP paid correctly given their mix of fossil and clean fuel production when you can just tax the fossil fuel in elegant simplicity?

The only difference in what we’re saying is that your method is more difficult, more expensive, and less effective. But the price at the pump is going up either way.