Crank, it will not effect competitiveness regarding domestic v foreign producers. However, the entire cost will be passed thru at the pump. They raised taxes on us, even jim.

Still no real energy policy. The last decent politician was probably Eddie Murphy in The Distinguished Gentleman (love the duck hunting scene). I am in favor of a large energy tax, provided (hah!) that the money goes to incentives (and NOT taking the money and moving it) for various alternative means created. And that also means transferring the credits, so if GE is producing wind or nuclear, then they can sell the tax credit around to a company that needs it, like say Exxon Mobil.

I have a large trust in the greed of homo sapiens. If it's in our best interest to actually gain by producing alternative fuel sources, well, we really will do it. The only incentive that produces results faster than capitalism is war. And we are indeed at war.

I find it appropriate that HR 6 was passed on the same day that oil prices dipped below $50 per barrel. The Market continues to be the best way to deal with pricing issues. Certain domestic and alternative fuel sources only make sense economically when prices hit a certain level. Just look at the cost for a bushel of corn in the last year. It more than doubled.

I am all for alternative energy. This bill's purpose; however, is for nothing more than press coverage and politics. Being able to say you voted for HR 6 is just a bullet item for all of these newly elected Reps campaign pieces a year from now.

For as much as the Dems complain about how the Republicans govern, they have merely stolen the '94 playbook and changed the names of the plays.

My major disappointment with all propoasl bandied about these days is they do NOTHING to address the near future. A large tax would be political disaster, but it would affect demand. How big would it have to be to affect demand? 70$ did not do the trick. Not gonna happen. As a result any plan that does not substantial expend domestic drilling is a waste of everyone's time. It's not serious proposal. That's why the last SOTU sickened me. If Bush and Cheney don't know, or have the balls, whatever. There's just no excuse.

Unfortunately, abe, we have Democratic Senators that think of ANWR as some kind of recreation of the Garden of Eden instead of the frozen-over abandoned Wal-Mart parking lot that it actually resembles. They filibustered ANWR drilling every time it came up for the last 6 years, and when it did actually pass Congress earlier, in the 1990s, Bill Clinton vetoed it. Bush didn't bring it up because if it couldn't get through Congress with the Republicans in the majority, it would be DOA with the current Congress. But in general, I agree: we won't start cutting back on foreign oil until we drill for what we already have, and it's entirely the fault of Congressional Democrats that we aren't.