Re: Re: oil predictions

["Ian Murray" <seamus2001@xxxxxxxx>]

> > > CB: Can't one just heat it and let it evaporate ?
> > >
> > > On Tue, Jul 10, 2001 at 02:13:10PM -0400, Charles Brown wrote:
> > =========
> > What will you do to trap the toxic chemicals from diffusing into
the
> > atmosphere [atmofractal :-)] and killing people?
> >
> > ((((((((
> >
> > CB: Filter the steam ?
> =============
> And then what do you do with the toxics, export them somewhere?
>
> ((((((((
>
> CB: Put them in rockets and shoot them into the sun ( Buckminister
Fuller)
==========
A G5 space elevator [designed by a Russian engineer; see Arthur C.
Clarke "Fountains of Paradise" for the details]--which is feasible--
and then launch into Sun [my college roommate: 'dude I don't think we
want to mess with the Sun',  :-) ]

Of course, there'll have to be taxes for this, so:
< http://www.latimes.com >
July 10, 2001
L.A. County Targets Satellites in Out-of-This-World Tax Plan
NANCY VOGEL, TIMES STAFF WRITER



SACRAMENTO -- Los Angeles County officials, realizing that there is no
tax collector in outer space, hope to fill the void.

Reaching 22,300 miles above the equator, boldly going where no tax
collector has gone before, Los Angeles County Assessor Rick Auerbach
is angling to impose property taxes on several satellites.

Though never done before in California, the move is legal, say state
and county tax attorneys. That's because, they say, nobody else is
taxing the satellites and they are valuable property owned by a Los
Angeles County-based company. Worth as much as $100 million each to
Hughes Electronics in El Segundo, the satellites could bring in
millions of dollars a year in taxes to schools and government. County
officials are considering assessing at least eight satellites owned by
Hughes.

The company is not happy about the tax collector's attempt to extend
his jurisdiction beyond this world.

Brian Paperny, Hughes vice president of taxes, described the company's
executives as "very concerned with the concept of a tax being assessed
on a stationary object 22,300 miles away from the Earth, which is
residing in a fixed parking slot . . . over the equator, far, far away
from Los Angeles County and the borders of California."

The idea has sparked a debate more cosmic than most in the annals of
property taxation.

Auerbach, the assessor, figures that satellites are no different from
other movable personal property that he has authority to tax--like
boats, construction equipment and ice skating costumes.

Yes, said Auerbach, who has researched the issue, in a 1976 case a
judge determined that the property of the Ice Capades could be taxed
by Los Angeles County although it spent most of the year traveling
elsewhere with the ice-skating extravaganza.

"It happens with a lot of other property," said Auerbach. "The
difference with the satellites, obviously, is that they're pretty far
removed from Earth."

Hughes argues that the satellites are in a different class altogether.

"The property in question here is geostationary," said Larry Hoenig, a
San Francisco attorney representing Hughes Electronics. "Geostationary
satellites sit above the equator in a fixed position; they do not
rotate around the Earth. So the satellites we're talking about here
are not movable property."

Attorneys for the state Board of Equalization, consulted by Auerbach,
came down on the county assessor's side.

"While the satellites are in Earth orbit," wrote the Board of
Equalization attorneys in a background paper, "they nonetheless have a
situs for tax purposes in Los Angeles County, California."

Auerbach's office first began questioning whether it could tax eight
satellites during a routine audit this year of the property that
Hughes Electronics owned from 1991 through 1994. If Auerbach succeeds
in taxing those satellites, presumably other satellites owned by
Hughes and its subsidiaries would be taxed.

The satellites serve a multitude of functions, from beaming HBO movies
into American homes to speeding up credit card processing for
motorists who pay at unmanned gas pumps, said Hughes spokesman Richard
Dore.

Hughes launches the satellites either from Cape Canaveral in Florida
or from French Guyana, he said. They are then guided to an orbit
approved by the Federal Communications Commission. The satellites
remain fixed in that orbit for 10 to 15 years, until they run out of
the fuel necessary to adjust their positions so they are constantly
pointed at Earth. Then they are moved to a designated space graveyard.

The satellites, said Dore, never pass over California territory.

Nonetheless, Auerbach said, he feels compelled to tax the satellites.

"I've read the opinions," he said, "and it's pretty clear in my mind
that it's taxable."

The elected officials who oversee the Board of Equalization, an agency
that collects one-third of the state's annual revenues, are not so
sure.

Last week, the board backed away from its own legal staff's opinion.
In a 3-2 vote, the board moved to warn Auerbach that the advice he got
from the board's legal division is not necessarily the opinion of the
board itself and that he should not count on it.

State Controller and board Chairwoman Kathleen Connell said the issue
of taxing satellites will become more pressing if President Bush
succeeds in launching his missile defense strategy. She said that
plan, aimed at protecting the nation from enemy missiles, entails the
installation of satellite transmitters along the West Coast.

In some future regulatory process, Connell said, the board will
determine just how far the tax collector can reach into outer space.

Auerbach said he thinks he knows where the issue will land.

"I do believe," he said, "this will eventually end up in the courts."