This year, the Obama Administration is testing out a new revenue model whereby it mandates the use of technology that doesn't exist, then penalizes companies with fees for non-compliance.
Take, for instance, the penalty levied on oil refineries for failing to incorporate a nonexistent ingredient into the motor fuel they produce. According to the New York Times,
when the companies that supply motor fuel close the books on 2011, they will pay about $6.8 million in penalties to the Treasury because they failed to mix a special type of biofuel into their gasoline and diesel as required by law.
But there was none to be had. Outside a handful of laboratories and workshops, the ingredient, cellulosic biofuel, does not exist.
In 2012, the oil companies expect to pay even higher penalties for failing to blend in the fuel, which is made from wood chips or the inedible parts of plants like corncobs. Refiners were required to blend 6.6 million gallons into gasoline and diesel in 2011 and face a quota of 8.65 million gallons this year.
Once you get past the absurdity of the President's latest revenue raising scheme, you have to admit the ingenuity of it all. Imagine the revenue government could raise by penalizing auto companies that fail to manufacture cars that run on vegetable oil, or drug companies that fail to produce drugs that cure cancer, or even employers who fail to increase their workforce by 50 percent each year. Anyone who fails to indulge the administration's magical thinking would be forced to contribute to the government's coffers. The possibilities here truly are endless.
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Jun '10
Re: President Obama Penalizes Refineries for Failing to Perform Magic
Ah, the joys of the bureaucratic state: "Power without responsibility."
Jun '10
Re: President Obama Penalizes Refineries for Failing to Perform Magic
Caprice is the trademark of big government run amok.
Jun '10
Re: President Obama Penalizes Refineries for Failing to Perform Magic
...or the requirement for coffee to be at least 50% from Alaskan coffee beans?
Jul '10
Re: President Obama Penalizes Refineries for Failing to Perform Magic
And we want Obamagarbage in our fuel tanks and fuel lines because? It is not enough that food prices soar over the price of the fuel required to sow and reap, food and feed prices are also inflated through competition with biofuel vendors.
This would be the death throws of the EPA if only there were an alternative to the Parties of Washington.
Jun '10
Re: President Obama Penalizes Refineries for Failing to Perform Magic
So, how will the oil companies deal with this? ignore it? file lawsuits? I hate to hear about such stupid things.
Re: President Obama Penalizes Refineries for Failing to Perform Magic
They'll pay the fines.
And then maybe hire a few lobbyists...
Sep '10
Re: President Obama Penalizes Refineries for Failing to Perform Magic
This is mandated by the Bush ethanol nonsense. Last month a ethanol plant in GA went belly up. 70+ million of taxpayer money gone. You misstate the case. Taxpayers are paying the fine and oil companies are being given the task of collecting it. The Bush/Obama vision of government is a thing to behold. But have no fear if Romney is nominated and elected being the true conservative that he is things will get better.
Jul '11
Re: President Obama Penalizes Refineries for Failing to Perform Magic
They get out of the refining business.
People think that the oil industry makes money hand over fist, but the truth is that oil refining is a very difficult business to survive in. Margins are usually very slim and can change quickly. Making strategic adjustments is expensive and takes a long time, so a few bad decisions or an unforeseen government intervention can spell doom for refiners.
-E
Mar '11
Re: President Obama Penalizes Refineries for Failing to Perform Magic
Nope. They pass the costs on to people who buy fuel. Gee I'm glad I'm not one of those poor saps.
...oh, wait...
Re: President Obama Penalizes Refineries for Failing to Perform Magic
Yes, you are correct that this monster is Bush's baby. Part of the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act.
This, by the way, is the same legislation that contained the ban of the incandescent light bulb.
Quite the smorgasbord of goodies in that bill.
May '10
Re: President Obama Penalizes Refineries for Failing to Perform Magic
Keep your laws out of my gas tank.
Aug '10
Re: President Obama Penalizes Refineries for Failing to Perform Magic
<devil's advocate mode = on>
I thought Congress, and not the President, was responsible for passing legislation.
Does a president "own" every bill he doesn't veto?
<devil's advocate mode = off>
Mar '11
Re: President Obama Penalizes Refineries for Failing to Perform Magic
Diane Ellis, Ed.
Yes, you are correct that this monster is Bush's baby. Part of the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act.
This, by the way, is the same legislation that contained the ban of the incandescent light bulb.
Quite the smorgasbord of goodies in that bill. · Jan 11 at 8:47am
With Republicans like these who needs enemies.
Re: President Obama Penalizes Refineries for Failing to Perform Magic
Alas, this is not area where the Bush Administration's record was particularly strong. To give you an idea of how convoluted this area of policy was: I was tasked in 2008 with drafting a lengthy address on energy policy to be delivered to an audience in West Virginia. Given the demographics involved, there was obviously a large emphasis on coal. A few of the policy hands insisted I add some language promoting some research initiatives we were funding for synthetic coal -- only to discover in the editing rounds that we were underwriting no such thing. So much money was being thrown into so many different pots that the White House staff tasked with managing energy policy couldn't even keep track of it.
Diane Ellis, Ed.
Yes, you are correct that this monster is Bush's baby. Part of the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act.
This, by the way, is the same legislation that contained the ban of the incandescent light bulb.
Quite the smorgasbord of goodies in that bill. · Jan 11 at 8:47am
Mar '11
Re: President Obama Penalizes Refineries for Failing to Perform Magic
Misthiocracy: <devil's advocate mode = on>
I thought Congress, and not the President, was responsible for passing legislation.
Does a president "own" every bill he doesn't veto?
<devil's advocate mode = off> · Jan 11 at 8:56am
As the president Bush was the head of the party; with a Republican Congress our last Republican president lead an often leftist agenda. Ask Jim Demint what he thought of this period of Republican leadership.
Feb '11
Re: President Obama Penalizes Refineries for Failing to Perform Magic
Diane Ellis, Ed.
They'll pay the fines.
And then maybe hire a few lobbyists... · Jan 11 at 8:33am
Sad, but true. Then they will donate to Obama's re-election campaign and the rule will be put in abeyance, until the 2014 mid-terms...
A classic example of shake-downs by politicians: "Gee that's a mighty fine business you've got there, it'd be a real shame if something were to happen to it."
Edited on Jan 11 at 9:13amMay '10
Re: President Obama Penalizes Refineries for Failing to Perform Magic
Diane Ellis, Ed.: .... According to the New York Times,
"Will" is the key word in that sentence. That law blatantly defies reality, yet companies choose to pay the extortion money, rather than stand up to tyranny and hope public support protects them from the consequences.
As I've said before, any law is only valid so long as officials have the ability and will to enforce it and citizens have the ability and will to obey it. The balance of power in America has apparently shifted entirely from citizens to politicians. We meekly obey anything they can dream up, even when it's clearly nothing more than extortion.
Freedom requires assertive citizens.
Edited on Jan 11 at 9:19amMay '10
Re: President Obama Penalizes Refineries for Failing to Perform Magic
Say, wasn't Willie Nelson trying to do something like this a couple of years ago? How'd that work out for him?
Jul '11
Re: President Obama Penalizes Refineries for Failing to Perform Magic
Mandate unobtanium now!
Jun '10
Re: President Obama Penalizes Refineries for Failing to Perform Magic
"Catch-22 says they have a right to do anything we can't stop them from doing."
The absurdity becomes more apparent every day.