PV Gap

Deborah Said:

Should windfall oil profits be taxed and used to fund alternative energy?

We Answered:

ha ha ha ha.... sure, tax the 8 cents collected on a dollar's sale of gas and do nothing about the 42 cents of government taxes collected. But let me tell you when you do:

A) It has a similar effect to taxing cigarettes for health insurance. The consumption (and in the case of oil production) goes down, which means the revenue goes down, which means the program you were funding has less money to work with if it does not get shut down entirely like many health initiatives were after the billion dollar lawsuits against the tobacco companies during the Clinton administration.

B) Or every American can get their wish and oil prices will go down. It happened in the early 80s, when oil drastically dropped down to $10 a barrel. The result was that the windfall profits taxes left by Carter actually ended up COSTING the government money because the revenue fell so low the taxes collected were scant, and in the process numerous oil company employees lost their jobs. This severely drained the economy as it contributed to higher unemployment, a loss of standard of living among many people who had been living just fine despite the poor status of the economy, and government was eventually forced to repeal the winfall profits tax just to get oil companies in a position where they could actually process enough in the refineries to meet demand.

You can blame it all on the GOP, but when you're waiting for gas in a line for two hours like people were during the Carter administration because of price gouging, a prime example of what happens when the government interferes in the free market to place a price ceiling on consumables, you will miss the days of the evil oil companies reign. And in the meantime the lowered sales and loss of revenues will back up development, just like it did as a result of Carter's policies, and that is why the US is still not energy independent to this day.

Even under optimal conditions it will be another 15 years before it could be energy independent anyway, provided the pointless corn subsidies stop and people start growing sugar cane like Brazil (and that took 35 years to wean them off of imported oil), so don't expect things to be extremely different even if Obama is in charge for two administrations when he leaves. Technological development requires capital and innovation with minimal government direction, the misapplication of corn ethanol subsidies shows exactly how government often chooses the wrong technologies to invest in and actually ends up exacerbating other problems. The oil companies should invest in energy technology but they can't come up with enough money even if you allowed them to have no profit, and anyone with any sense knows doing that is just going to give them that much less of a reason to increase output, keeping the consumer price high and decreasing the revenue available for R &D.

Tara Said:

Physics? Am I correct?

We Answered:

#1- I'm not sure
#2- agreed (d
#3- d) need wire around a metal core
#4- b) <hydroelectric is renewable, Propane is nonreNewable, the sun is renewable
#5- c) everything else best describes renewable resources (GeoThermal,Wind,Solar)

Fernando Said:

Science Test!?

We Answered:

1- D
2- B
3- A
4_A
You will get A+. It was on one of my tests.

Timothy Said:

can anyone help me with my biology project..?

We Answered:

These are inapt and inept analogies. You know your teacher better than we do, so whatever it was he or she said in lecture is what he or she wants as answers. If you want, I'll give a shot at guessing, but I do NOT guarantee the results.
A. Cell membrane
B. Endoplasmic reticulum (?)
C. Nucleus
D. Chromatin (Chromosomes, DNA)
E. Nucleolus (or Chromatin or Chromosomes or DNA)
F. Ribosomes
G. Huh? Cytoplasm? Endoplasmic reticulum?
H. Food vacuole
I. Vacuole
J. Mitochondrion
K. Chloroplast

Timothy Said:

Is the earth and it's atmosphere a relative GIANT BATTERY, it's electrical energy waiting to be tapped?

We Answered:

Harnessing the energy is the problem. The current created is manifested as lightning. So ensuring you can have the lightning discharges constant and in the same place is key.

It's not impossible, and yes we'd get some real stuff out of that when capable. We just currently are not focused on doing that.

good luck!