Nye formally announces energy plan
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Glenn Nye, challenger to Rep. Thelma Drake in Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District, unveiled his energy plan over the weekend.
The energy plan doesn’t deviate much from what he told Bearing Drift and state Democratic convention-goers in June, when he highlighted closing any tax loop-holes for energy corporations and diverting that money to alternative fuel research.
According to Nye’s web site, his energy plan is focused mainly on finding new and alternative forms of energy, however it fails to provide any real details.
From the event on Saturday, the Pilot reports that Nye’s plan also includes:
…more drilling on lands now leased to oil companies, more regulation on oil speculators, and more investment in alternative energy.
For the first time, he said he is not opposed to lifting the congressional moratorium on new offshore drilling sites but said there should be no drilling off Virginia’s coast unless the Navy approves it.
The last part is the most interesting because Rep. Thelma Drake has already agreed to that int the current congressional proposal.
On Wednesday, Drake signed onto an energy plan called the National Conservation, Environment and Energy Independence Act. It would restrict drilling rigs to 25 miles offshore and give each state an option to extend the no-drilling zone to 50 miles. It also would preserve a ban on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The Navy’s primary training area off the coast of Virginia does not extend further than 50 miles, so lifting the moratorium will not have any impact on the Navy in Virginia.
It’s also interesting in that he waited for Barack Obama and Mark Warner to come around to this line of thinking before also changing tack.
Why is nobody addressing the issue that ALL prices are going up dramatically, and not just gas prices? I went to Farm Fresh to get a Digiorno pizza a couple days ago and they were $8!
I’m so glad to hear that Rep. Drake is indeed at least starting to understand the Navy’s concerns here. Good sign! But she needs to also understand that we need to dig over 100 miles off the coastline in order to be outside the Virginia Capes Operating Area. Look at the maps again, JR. There is a chunk of Virginia’s desired wedge that is outside the VACAPES OPAREA.
Rep. Drake also needs to work on getting the Feds to adjust the Proposed Final Program Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program to comply with Virginia’s Energy Plan.
Glenn Nye on Eileen’s blog: “I do not believe that drilling off the coast of Virginia is good policy from and environmental, economic, security and long term planning process.”
But this weekend, Nye acting like he’d drill tomorrow if he could. Uh huh.
Eileen, looks like Nye has ditched you and the Sierra Club. How’s it feel?
Hum, as I recall the Norfolk canyon is 41 miles of Virginia’s shore - that is where the current industry estimates believe the largest natural gas and oil deposit will be located. What good would it do to have a 50 mile limit for Virginia?
“Why is nobody addressing the issue that ALL prices are going up dramatically, and not just gas prices? I went to Farm Fresh to get a Digiorno pizza a couple days ago and they were $8!”
Because the price of everything is BECAUSE of rising fuel costs, not the two going up coincidentally.
Squeaky,
You got that right. I am a truck driver. While my fuel surcharge has dropped a few pennies the last couple weeks due to decreasing fuel prices, I was getting as high as 62 cents a mile in fuel surcharge alone. Consider how many truck trips are included in assembling the ingredients for that frozen pizza and that each of these trips has an extra 62 cents per mile added to the freight rate and it does not take long for it to add up to real money.
But there is an advantage to the high fuel prices for the trucking industry. It encouraged fuel conservation (helping to reduce our dependence on foreign oil). Conservation equals decreased demand resulting in lower prices which eases motivation towards conservation increasing demand resulting in higher prices. Egads, its like a dog chasing its tail.
While I think the lower fuel prices are good for the economy, I think the high fuel prices were good for motivating conservation.
I am actually in favor of, as the price of diesel drops, placing taxes on it to keep the price up around $4.50 a gallon to ensure some of the fuel conservation efforts I have already witnessed starting to happen continue. However these taxes should immediately be returned to the trucking industry in the form of credits towards paying their IFTA (International Fuel Tax Agreement) fuel taxes. I am not going to attempt to explain how IFTA works, but my plan would not result in any new beauracracy or paper work. What it would do is keep diesel prices high enough to motivate fuel conservation by the trucking industry and reward fuel conservers and punish fuel gluttons (the fuel gluttons have been dropping like flies, but there are still a few of them out there). However the “high diesel prices” caused by the tax would not be felt by consumers because the tax would only be used to motivate fuel conservation and the entire amount collected would be returned to the transportation industry. In fact consumers should actually benefit from the reduction in demand for diesel. After the rebated taxes, the real cost of diesel brought about should result in the consumer paying less for transportation costs.
The trucking industry needs to continue being motivated towards conserving fuel. We need to do our part to help our nation break our addiction to imported crude oil. I was attempting to conserve fuel way back to when diesel sold for 77.9 cents a gallon. However most truckers were not motivated to conserve until the price approached $5 bucks a gallon. I think we need to keep the motivation in place and drive those who refuse to conserve fuel out of business.
Squeaky, it seems to me that gas prices are being focused on when the government is destroying the value of our dollar. If online sources are correct in saying the dollar has lost 1/3 of its value since 2002, it would follow that gas prices, along with everything else, will rise in price as well. Tack on the increased demand for oil, and you can see the state we’re in. But I don’t believe for a second that the problems we’re seeing in increased pricing are all related to the price of oil. And I believe that if the dollar value is not addressed, we will see much more difficult times ahead.
Stephen Gunter,
Rising fuel prices are behind much, but certainly not all of the rising prices for “everything”.
Consider the frozen pizza, or only one ingredient of it. How about the flour that went into the pizza crust? The wheat had to be trucked to the granary. From the granary it had to be trucked to the flour mill. Since Digiorno is a large outfit they probably benefit from skipping the trucking to a distibution center and take direct delivery of complete truckloads of flour. But we’re still talking about significant mileage.
Now consider the impact of fuel prices on all that freight mileage. While some claim the industry average is around 6 MPG, I think this is a little high. It probably was before the new EPA compliant engines came out, but the new engines do not get as good fuel mileage. Many trucks still on the road get as little as 4.5 MPG. At this week’s national average price for diesel (as of 08/04/08 $4.502), and at 4.5 MPG the trucker is spending a buck a mile just to pay for the diesel it costs to run down the road. The trucker is not going to drive the truck at a loss (except perhaps as a backhaul) and he still has to pay for maintenance of his truck and all the taxes and permits before he earns a profit.
I’m surprised the economy hasn’t strangled on the high transportation costs! But my understanding is that what little spunk there is in the economy is due to increasing exports brought about by the falling dollar. Problem right now is that the increased exports have been being eaten up by the increased prices for imported crude oil. Just imagine what might be possible if we broke our addiction to foreign oil!
If you take oil out of the equation the falling dollar has been good for the American economy. Problem is we’re still addicted to oil (and I used that term to describe our plight long before George Dubyah Bush ever uttered it).
I wish to further explain something about my idea that I put forth on my 05 August post.
In my attempt at brevity, I neglected to explain something important. Someone could honestly how taxing and then rebating all the taxes could possibly motivate conservation.
Taxes would be paid on gallons purchased and the rebate paid based upon miles traveled as claimed in IFTA filings. Fuel efficient trucking fleets will receive back more then they paid in while fuel inefficient fleets will receive less then they paid. Fuel gluttons will subsidize fuel mizers.
[...] on Aug. 4 that Virginia Beach Democrat Glenn Nye and challenger to Rep. Thelma Drake (VA-2) had released his energy strategy. In his plan, Nye stated he was in favor of: “More drilling on lands now leased to oil [...]