The unintended consequences of carbon rationing

The Environmental Audit Committee in the United Kingdom wants to institute a carbon ration to its citizens. Whatever business transaction that is used for a good or service that uses fossil fuel can only be purchased by a special carbon credit card. This would include gasoline, diesel, electricity, and flights and to do otherwise would be illegal (imagine the very act of purchasing a gallon of gas for your lawnmower to be a criminal act). Of course, the elitists have a way out: buy carbon rations from the poor via special carbon brokers. The politicians enacting this legislation, the ex-politicians spreading misinformation about global warming (I'm talking you Al), and the mentally challenged actors of the entertainment industry promoting the same attitude that leads to this intrusive bureaucracy. I can imagine it now. Those of the middle class forced to make the choice between moving away from the homes they lived in for generation because they can't afford the carbon rations to go to work and back or to give up their jobs and look for work closer to home even at the risk of a substantial pay cut. Where as once flight or even automobile ownership were once quite common is now regulated to the upper class widening the divide between the haves and have nots. The only ones to flourish in this system will be the rich who can afford to buy the carbon rations from the unwashed masses of hard-working formally middle class citizens, the carbon ration brokers making a profit off of other people's misery, and organized crime with the latest product to be sold on the black market: ordinary gasoline.

Breakdown of the price of gasoline or where the hell does your money goes for that $4 per gallon gas

I did a bit of research on the web and found the gasoline primer from the Energy Information Administration, the official energy statistics from the United States government. The lowdown is this: only 9% of the cost for gasoline goes to oil companies profits, which is less than half of what the federal and state government makes in tax revenues (remember that the next time so idiot mouths off about 'Big Oil' less they're referring to OPEC). The single biggest contributor to the price of gasoline is the cost of crude oil. In 2004, crude oil prices contributed to 47% of the cost of oil. One year later in '05, that number jumped to 53%. And now, in today's $4 per gallon gasoline market, crude oil prices consist of 72% of the cost of oil. That's $2.88 out of $4 going to supplies of the raw material used to make gasoline, and the vast majority of that crude comes not from U.S companies, but is imported from nations that has nationalized their oil industry, some of which has formed cartels to stifle competition and fix the price of oil (I'm pointing at you OPEC) And add in the fact that the economy India and China, (both nations together has 9 times the population of the US) are growing at record rates, the demand for oil is skyrocketing as supplies is in the hand of mostly corrupted dictatorships. And what does this has to do with the environmentalist movement? The environmentalists has been the cause of our gasoline woes. No new refineries has been built in the United States in 25 years. 85% of off shore oil (76 billion barrels of recoverable oil) is off-limits and now Democrats, at the behest of environmental extremists, are setting their sites on oil shale and coal liquefaction. And worst of all, none of the factions will owe up to their responsibility for jacking up the cost of gasoline and the lack of energy independence for this nation.

Doing something constructive

I am a mechanical and aerospace engineer just a few years out of college, so when it comes to technology, I have a strong educational background. I am also pro-technology and anti-Neo Luddite, which is why I have such a strong hatred for what passes as the environmentalist movement today. The extremist environmentalist movement today consist of two factors:

1). the 'if we only had renewable solar power/wind power instead of dirty old coal and nuclear' environmentalist

and worse

2). the 'Americans are greedy and selfish and we should use less resources' environmentalists.

A sub faction of #2 substitutes 'Americans' with 'humanity' and believe the world would be better off without humans. I suggest these bunch set the example and commit suicide. But back on subject. For years, I'm been enraged at environmentalist extremist that refuse to listen to reason or consider the prospect that they might be wrong and so much so I have flamed eco-whacho sites. But at the behest of a close friend of mine, I'm not going to flame. Instead I'll hurt these environmental extremist where it matters: by telling the truth and debunking their BS.