posted March 01, 2007 01:06 AM            

Hillary announced a plan to take oil company profits and put them into a fund for developing new energy sources.

That's right, just take the profits..and she didn't say SOME of the profits.

Hillary, the constitutionalist.

posted March 01, 2007 01:08 AM              

Just wondering- I hadn't heard if this actually happened yet.

posted March 10, 2007 02:30 AM            

(AP) SAN FRANCISCO California refinery profits have more than doubled since last fall, one factor fueling both rising gasoline prices and record oil company profits.

Refinery profit margins now stand at $39 per barrel on the West Coast, more than double their average of $17 for the last five years, according to one rough measurement cited Friday by the San Francisco Chronicle.

Refineries don't release precise profit figures. The newspaper measured the difference between the cost of the crude oil that refineries use and the price they charge for their finished products.

A limited number of refineries make California's gas. Those refineries belong to a handful of companies. Chevron Corp., for example, controls roughly one quarter of the gasoline refining within the state. Chevron recorded 2006 earnings of $17.14 billion, its largest ever, boosted in part by refinery operations.

Gasoline prices have jumped above $3 a gallon for regular grade in some parts of California. The most expensive gas in the mainland United States is San Francisco, where a gallon averages $3.10, a jump of about 34 cents from a month ago.

The refineries that make California's unique, pollution-fighting blend of gas have pumped out 7.8 percent less gasoline since the start of February than they did in the same period last year. That smaller supply brings higher retail prices.

Many analysts have attributed the rising pump prices to seasonal maintenance at the refineries, which typically begins in February, when California switches from winter to summer fuel blends.

Consumer advocates say the oil companies are intentionally limiting gasoline supplies to drive up prices and profit margins.

"What this industry needs to make big profits and what consumers need to have reasonable prices are very different things," said Judy Dugan, research director for the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights.

Oil industry representatives say they are not holding back supplies. The refineries must continue to pay their workers and sometimes hire extra maintenance personnel when glitches or maintenance-related slowdowns in production occur, they say.

"All the overhead still stays," said Joe Sparano, president of the Western States Petroleum Association. "It is not a good condition to be shut down."

Former California Attorney General Bill Lockyer subpoenaed financial documents from the state's refiners last year after a sharp profit spike last spring. His successor, Jerry Brown, said the case remains open.

Figuring out real answers is practically impossible, said Severin Borenstein, director of the University of California Energy Institute. All the maintenance delays and production problems could be real, he said. Or refineries could be doing little things, bit by bit, to limit California's gasoline supply, he said.

posted March 10, 2007 02:37 PM            

Hillary said she wanted to take oil company profits and put them into a fund for developing alternative energy sources.

Got that acoustic?

Not only did she intend to steal oil company profits but she intends to force oil companies to fund other energy sources to put them out of business. In effect to make oil companies fund their own demise.

Kind of reminds me of the communist Chinese government policy of handing a bill to the relatives for the bullet they used to execute a family member.

Hillary Clinton is clueless about the US Constitution...or in the alternative, she is just so corrupt she doesn't care what it says in plain English.

Since I know about the most corrupt First Lady to ever occupy the White House, I vote for the alternate view.

MK, corporations have always been considered "persons" under US law. "Artificial persons" but enjoying the same protections as "natural persons".

As such, they enjoy the same protections under the law as anyone, including the right to property...and not having that property taken without "due process of law"...and just compensation.

Nor can government single out specific individuals..natural or artificial and legislate against them only. Such practice would violate the 14th Amendment "due process" and "equal protection" of the laws clause(s).

Hillary is talking through her butt...as usual.

posted March 10, 2007 02:41 PM            

I shall repost what I said previously as you seem to not have read it:

quote:

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Hillary wants to end tax breaks to oil companies to fund this initiative. Type "Oil company tax breaks" into Google, and read up. The government, with Republicans at the helm, gave oil companies some ridiculous tax breaks even while these oil companies were making record profits.

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Clinton Proposes $50 Billion Energy Research Fund
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Michaela Jackson

(AXcess News) Washington - Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., announced Tuesday that she will reintroduce legislation calling for a Strategic Energy Fund to promote a healthier environment and a healthier economy.

"Still, too often, people try to set the environment against the economy, but a clean energy agenda is a jobs agenda, and we have to take that message and drive it home day after day," she said at a summit of the Apollo Alliance, a lobbying group devoted to the marriage of job growth and energy progress.

The group promised to make energy a major campaign issue.

Clinton's legislation, which she first introduced in May, would earmark $50 billion for research, development and deployment of clean energy. The funds would come in part, Clinton said, from ending tax breaks to big oil companies. She called the initiative "an Apollo project for energy," referring to President John F. Kennedy's promise in the 1960s to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.

Mark Kibbe, senior tax policy analyst for the American Petroleum Institute, said Congress intended the tax incentives to promote domestic oil production.

"Congress needs to take a look at why those provisions are in place, what they are intended to do, and understand what happens if you take those things away," Kibbe said. "We would say, ‘Look before you leap, and then understand the ramifications of making some of those choices would be.' I don't think the results would be what Congress would want to happen."

Clinton said the fund would invest in technology and ideas that already exist "that can quickly contribute to a cleaner, more independent future," including ethanol, wind power and clean coal technology. The fund would quadruple tax breaks for owners of hybrid and clean diesel cars.

She said $9 billion of the fund would "unleash American ingenuity" in advanced research.

"We have a big decision to make," she said. "We really are at a turning point. We can wait for something terrible to happen ... or we can be smart again as Americans and start planning for the future, and taking steps that will take us to that new future, will, in effect, create that new future for us."

The giants of energy are preparing for that future, Kibbe said, because the energy companies of today want to be the energy companies tomorrow, in whatever form that energy may come.

"Our industry is very much in support of alternative energy," Kibbe said. "With the energy demand growing at the rapid rate that it is, not only in the U.S., but overseas, as well, we need energy from every source that we can get it.

"Just about all of the major companies are investing in hydrogen. We still need to satisfy current demands for energy. ... We don't want to jeopardize the present as we look to the future. We need to do both."

Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ind.-Vt., also spoke at the summit, highlighting the importance of energy legislation for middle-class Americans.

"There are people in the environmental community who have ignored the needs of working families, and there have been people in trade unions and representing working class families who have not paid enough attention to the economy," Sanders said. "By bringing all of our people together, we are going to be a very, very potent force here on Capitol Hill.

"The goal, again, that we are united upon is saving our planet, protecting the environment so that our kids do not get sick from breathing garbage in the air, and at the same time, bring the quality of jobs that will allow the middle class to expand and not shrink," he said.

Source: Scripps Howard Foundation Wire
http://www.axcessnews.com/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=13084