DEMOCRATS, Arresting the “Energizer Bunny”?

California Governor, Pull Over. Your Policy’s Got a “Flat Tire.” People can’t afford food and gas! Blame it on the Rain, Pandemic and Russia? Anything or anyone leaders say. What a F#%!* “cop out.”

In a critical September 2011 issue, Scientific American featured “Cities: Smarter, Greener, Better.” Interviews with Thomas Kuhn, President of Edison Electric Institute (EEI) and the late T. Boone Pickens, BP Capital Management were prescient.  

Speaking on energy and green technologies, Pickens was asked, “You talk to people in Washington all the time, Boone. Does anybody understand the problem well enough to know how to address it?” 

Pickens response, “Get yourself a crisis, and then something will come out of Congress.” He was right. In the current energy crisis, SOMESHIT also came out of California’s Governor – $400 free debit cards to help pay for gas. Gee, thanks, but what about the next 11 or 23 months?

Democrats are slowing Elon’s “Energizer Bunny.” Isn’t it counterproductive and costly seeing as hundreds of millions of tax dollars went into the DOE helping to fund Tesla Motors? Instead of incentivizing electric vehicles, the Donkey politicians are promoting purchasing gas cars. How about utility cards to keep the lights on?

Gas or electric, flat tires won’t get you anywhere.  You see Governor Newsom, “it’s [STILL] the economy stupid.” No matter what you drive, inflation will hurt you.

Instead of blaming a bug or a foreign country, a weak Congress needs to target the inflators, corporations. As markets tanked, Big Oil&Gas (BOG) made out like bandits. Shell profits reportedly tripled.

Let’s face it, if Dems are weak on gun crisis what makes one think they can handle energy?

The Taxman Cometh and Goeth with Your $

If Tax Breaks and Climate Change created winners and losers, then engineered crises created dependence on commodities. But did it really take the Russia-Ukraine battle to bring oil and gas as well as other commodities front and center?

Dependence on foreign markets and its imminent consequences come as no surprise. Kuhn forewarned eleven years ago, “Never in the history of the world have we been so dependent upon one commodity as we are on oil right now.”

Perhaps, but he may have overlooked that “Ninety percent of coal in the US is burned for electricity.” So, Mr. Kuhn, shall we move from oil to coal? Sure, it increases Edison’s profits but doesn’t please the “green party.” Lesser of two evils? A fossil fuel is a fossil fuel is a fossil fuel.

In June of 2015, the “Energy Department and Edison Electric Institute Sign Agreement to Advance Electric Vehicle Technologies.” It’s no surprise that two years later, “Electric utilities come out as winners under GOP-led nationwide tax reform.”

EEI added that “any final legislation must include provisions that benefit electricity customers.” But how does this benefit all consumers?

Recall that tax breaks for EEI allowed them to normalize rates. But proponents and critics of EEI point out that the cleaner and more efficient they get, the wider their profit margins due in part to tax breaks.

However, “if more consumers switched to rooftop solar and bought less electricity from the grid…it raises the potential for irreparable damages to revenues and growth.” Yet, the sneaky bastards found a way. Edison Institute along with utility lobbyists have long tried to “put the brakes” on rooftop solar.

In a pandemic, war or crises, the gas, oil and electric companies are the ones “catching a break.” For the rest, it’s “one step forward, three steps back.”

Friends, we’re past speed bumps here. Isn’t it time to short their “electric bunny” and put up spike strips to flatten their tireless corruption arresting their profit margins?     

Speaking on Windfall Tax, Shell’s CEO stated “I’m not convinced that windfall taxes, popular though as they seem, will help us with supply, nor is it going to help us with demand.” Us being execs and shareholders.  

BPs top exec may agree, “When the market is strong, when oil prices are strong and when gas prices are strong, this is literally a cash machine.’”  

What say Boris of Britain? “We’ll have to look at it.” Consumers, think about this next time you’re filling up your machine. And as the price keeps getting “stronger” I guess you’ll just have to simply look at it and weep.

My green friends, it is important to point out that unlike its earnings reports, Anglo-Shell emissions-reductions marks don’t look so good. In fact, they reportedly border on criminal. Shall one invest on zero-emission vehicle futures’?

In 2020, at the height of pandemic when demand was low, “BP recorded the largest loss we’ve made in our history.” BOGs, it looks like it was time to get yourself a crises. Russia-Ukraine conflict?

BUT, any way you cut it or pump it, oil is convoluted from many sources, foreign and domestic. The cartel of the “Seven Sisters” pumped up to become BOG Big Brothers. Royal Dutch Shell is now Anglo-Dutch Shell. Anglo-Persian Oil is now BP.

UKs Big Brother awakes from its Russian pipe dreams.  Avoidance of Dividend Tax is alluring to Corporations. As the “Dutch system of applying a 15% withholding tax on dividends” continues, Anglo-Dutch Shell has reportedly for some time considered relocating to the UK.

East and West, countries need to revisit gaining bargaining leverage. Recent crisis has changed things. Three primary factors for alluring businesses are tax incentives: company, employee, and property taxes. Consider how working from home changes these tax dynamics.

US, your leader says “Buy American.” Why are buying Britain? Patriotic? Avoid filling up at the Shell pump or buying or investing in anything from BP.

Sure, Tesla Motors market cap is reportedly 1.03 Trillion, near the total worth of four top oil/gas companies. BUT as Consumers, it cuts both ways.

Ironically, on one end you have laws and government polices “arresting” the electric car. On the other end, high priced gas is stopping drivers in their tracks.

Shareholders, you can’t be in bed with Big Oil&Gas making a killing in the market and complain high gas prices are killing you.  

Gas drivers, face the law of the road. If you can afford to buy the car, you can buy its gas 🙂