My Platform for President – the Energy Plank

I have had about all I can take of the pandering give away short term economic and energy fixes being offered by our candidates. I am frightened by the different plans to manage our military, wars, and our foreign policy. So I decided to provide my own presidential platform planks. I consider these planks to be the building blocks to preserving this country’s greatness, our national security, and to rebuild our economic health. These planks will be spelled out in a series of blogs focusing on one plank at a time.

The first plank up at bat is my Energy Policy. The primary goals of this policy are to cease our Middle East oil dependence and reduce the inflation effect on food. Thanks to the price of diesel fuel and corn due to ethanol we are all paying dearly at the grocery store. Regressive taxes on our populace are the price of oil and ethanol, and the deaf and dumb approach to these commodities by our President and the Congress.

The Energy Plank:

· Develop a cookie cutter nuclear reactor site and building plan suitable for new sites that can be fast tracked, if adopted by power companies.

· Fast track pending new nuclear reactor applications planned as additions to existing nuclear reactor sites.

· Establish a tax credit for residences and a three year depreciation write-off for businesses to speed the conversion of oil fired boilers / furnaces, providing heat for offices and residences, to electric furnaces / boiler conversions.

· Provide truckers hauling interstate commerce and providing intra state deliveries the ability to take a tax credit for the full amount of federal tax paid on diesel fuel, which is 24.4 cents per gallon. This is another regressive tax on the populace. Funds for repairing our roads and bridges should come out of the general fund as it is in the best interest of all Americans to have good national transportation systems to foster inter and intra state commerce, as well as to get goods to both sea and land ports of embarkation for trade.

· Auction take-off times at all the nation’s busiest airports to reduce the fuel consumption by commercial jets sitting in line on taxi ways with engines running – a byproduct of this management will ease congestion and improve on-time performance.

· Limit the production of corn based ethanol to current levels, as it is no better than gasoline in reducing a carbon foot print and it is ratcheting up the cost of food. Food comes first. Encourage non food based ethanol production with continued tax subsidies.

· Require oil companies to match by investment in solar, wind, and geothermal an amount equal to the oil depletion allowance they claim.

· Again, I will seek Congress’ approval for drilling in ANWR. Perhaps the voters of this nation will help by electing Representatives and Senators who believe that our national security and economic interest trumps the pristine Arctic, at this time.

· A Federal Government match of dollar for dollar research investment in hydrogen fuel by U.S. domestic businesses and a similar match for infrastructure to produce engines and fuel delivery, providing the company earns 65% of its revenue from the U.S. The companies must qualify as legitimate candidates for the match prior to applying for the match.

The next plank to be published will be a viable trade policy plank.