Sen. Reid Calls Upon Congress To Raise EV Tax Incentives

The US gets virtually none of its oil from the middle east, and would get even less if the Obama administration would open up federal lands to fracking and oil exploration. We are in the middle east because the rest of the world spends all their money on the welfare state rather than defense, leaving us alone to fight the bad guys that fly planes into buildings and chop off the heads of journalists and aid workers. As for free Leafs - don't give Harry and Obama any ideas - they know how well free Obamaphones worked in 2012 and they are mighty worried about the coming 2014 elections.

As someone else commented, please don't give the government any more ideas on how to spend other people's money.

@stingray65 The US homeland gets next to no oil from the middle east. Most of the US military's oil supply comes straight from Saudi Arabia, Quatar, UAE, and Kuwait. There is a strong press for those lines to remain open. Then again on top of that the OPEC countries control the oil prices in a cartel setup that means the US has to abide by it or run the risk of losing valuable barrels. On top of that no amount of fracking or oil exploration on federal lands will off-set our needs. Even the most generous estimates in the Alaskan refuge were minute to the amount needed. Even now we're finding fracking is causing earthquakes and poisoning our water. As for who spends money on Defense, the US has had a vested interest in having the largest military for a century and far less of it has been ethical 'fighting the bad guys' but really protecting private business interest abroad. Fighting 'terrorism' is a complicated issue, our affairs in the middle east has created tension and driven a group that would normally lash out at their oppressive government to lash out at us because we help their oppressive governments. We kept Saudi Arabia upright and stable and they've been the main funder of terrorism in 9/11 and prior. The whole debacle in Syria is largely because we propped up Assad and then we wanted to let him fall Russia propped him up. I'm an interventionist, so don't get me wrong I like having a big military but we really need to get better at figuring out who we need to knock down and who we need to prop up because we've had a very right-wing capitalist approach to 'stability' that creates these long term issues.

@stingray65 Oil is a global commodity -- it doesn't matter where it actually comes from, the price is determined by the overall supply vs. demand. Until the US kicks its oil addiction, hydraulic fracturing in North Dakota or drilling in Alaska would only help marginally. We will still be tied up in the middle east forever. Dealing with Russian intransigence -- forever. Competing with China for the marginal barrel -- forever. We should focus on building an infrastructure that is self-sufficient and can switch to alternatives when priced appropriately. That's what tax incentives are for -- to kick-start the industries that everyone should want to have in place in the US in order to prevent future shocks. Too logical, right?

@fozone Logical, but based on sketchy assumptions. 1. Incentives to kick start industries sound great if only you can be sure of the outcome and honesty of the players. Generally, good ideas can get private funding anyway, so incentives should only be used when there is a really, really big consensus. Given the need for highway improvement, I would go with the original Obama plan and raise taxes on gasoline in order to make alternatives more attractive. 2. The other assumption is that we are not sitting on many, many more barrels in areas where even exploration is forbidden. Ask some geologists who know where to look, and you will get a really rosy picture of how much oil we could get pretty quickly with government approval. The reality is your great grand kids will have plenty.

@Landcrusher LC - Don't throw stones when you live in a glass house. 1.) You assume that 'great ideas can get private funding' and if we know anything about the auto industry is that if a great idea challenges their supremacy they'll simply buy you out or drive you into the ground using their limited monopoly. The fact that electric vehicles have been so slow to arrive has more to do with an industry griping and dragging their feet due to a lack of infrastructure than any firm logical reason. A few years back when the last round of CAFE came out the entire industry BUT Hyundai complained loudly how impossible it was. Hyundai/Kia said it was completely possible, once a major player cracks they all will. So under the assumption you put forward it would require one to agree to build EVs at a major scale and at this point none of the big players have agreed to. It isn't because it is a good/bad idea but it is a risk-aversion issue combined with their cartel control of the industry. 2.) I'm just going to call hogwash. Almost every optimistic oil prediction points out the most oil is far away from US shores and in generally political unstable areas. There has yet to be a geologist who has looked at the current data and suggests the US is one massive oil field that you seem to insist exists.

@Landcrusher http://abcnews.go.com/Business/american-oil-find-holds-oil-opec/story?id=17536852 You need to be better informed. Maybe read something that isn't produced by a bunch of campus radical naval gazers. The 3 trillion barrels in Colorado is just one major find of the past 7 years. There's plenty of oil in the Gulf of Mexico, off our coasts, and in ANWAR too. The economic implications are unacceptable to the ruling class, so people are being brainwashed to refuse their own prosperity and, ultimately, survival.

fozone, we've got OW! (Obama's War!) to contend with now -- a war to keep ISIL from taking over the oil fields of the Levant and eventually the entire Middle East. Given the advances that ISIS/ISIL has made to date, they should have complete control over those oil fields in less than two years, starting with the oil fields of Iraq, and working outward from there. But we don't hear any of the Uber-Left Liberal Greenweenie Democrats complaining about OW! the way they p!ssed and moaned about Shrub's war. But that is nothing to worry about because Big Oil has forecast that by 2020 America will be the planet's biggest producer of oil, with oil and oil products being America's top exports. Good deal!

@Landcrusher Sorry CJ, you're kidding yourself if you think that 3 trillion barrels matter. The price of solar and wind power is going down day by day and by the time that reserve would be profitable it would be easier to introduce solar panels per unit. Never mind the extreme ecological cost. But again you oil fiends are like heroin addicts, chasing the oily dragon hoping to get your next fix to deny reality.

@highdesertcat So, HDC can we officially take you off the list of 'fence sitters' because you keep denying how you're not a conservative but this response is abundantly clear you're not anything but a conservative blowhard with a skewed sense of reality. By the way sending bombers to deal with ISIL is far different than a war in Iraq that didn't need to be fought since it effectively destabilized the region, I mean more or less this fight with ISIL is merely an extension of Bush II's destabilization of the region and if you bother to read left-wing media outlets you'll hear the same anti-war views being espoused as before. But the closest you come is having Rush Limbaugh tell you I'm sure.

You can't see it in the picture, but just below the podium is Harry's socket set so he can immediately run to the House and tighten the bolts in Nancy Pelosi's neck.

@jkross22 It's a statue of Frederick Douglass. Don't feel bad -- you're not the first person to label a famous African American in DC as a Marxist.