How can President Obama and Congress either help the lubricants industry, promote U.S. manufacturing or conserve energy in 2013?

TLT Sounding Board January 2013

 

Sounding Board gave TLT’s international audience the issue off by sending this month’s survey questions to U.S. readers only. The most common responses from our American readers included reducing corporate tax rates to make U.S. businesses more competitive worldwide, applying a more common-sense approach to regulatory policy and taking greater advantage of natural energy sources within the country. Survey respondents also felt strongly that the new government should reduce the nation’s deficit and debt problems. Several said they believe the government should remove ethanol from fuel requirements, and others wanted to see a reduction in EPA’s authority. But by far the most common response was that the president and Congress should be less intrusive in the affairs of business and let the free enterprise system work. “They should resolve to leave private industry alone,” said one respondent. “Everything they touch turns into something akin to an incompatible grease mixture.”

The U.S. government can help the lubricants industry by continuing the push for more efficiency in industry and transportation. World-class lubrication is an important piece in the efficiency puzzle, and it should be seen as an integral part of the solution to reducing emissions.

Get out of the way.

Promote the Made in the USA mark by encouraging companies to manufacture in and export from the U.S.

Provide tax rebates to companies that update their lubricants and improve efficiency. Focusing on system efficiency first will help lower emissions.

I suggest the president and Congress remove authority from the EPA and trim back regulations to promote growth in the lubricants and energy industries.

Promote U.S. manufacturing by offering more incentives to assist new manufacturing startups and to help existing manufacturers stay in the U.S.

Resolving the gridlock in Washington would go a long way toward a happier New Year.

Promote U.S. manufacturing by eliminating tax write-offs for U.S. companies manufacturing products overseas.

Promote U.S. manufacturing by minimizing new regulations that put the U.S. at a competitive disadvantage.

It is a wrong-headed government that sees its job as helping industry du jour. The best solution for promoting U.S. manufacturing is to reduce tax burden on all, not just some. And tax burden cannot be fundamentally and permanently reduced without reducing spending. The nanny-state must end.

Best way the government can help the industry is to not get involved.

Remove current ethanol for fuel requirements.

Do you expect your employer’s business to increase, decrease or stay about the same in 2013 compared to 2012?
Increase 45%
Decrease 15%
Same 40%
Results based on a survey of U.S.-based TLT readers.

We do not need the government’s interaction in our industry. We do not need the government’s interaction in any business. The government’s involvement in business is called corporatism and is a cornerstone of Socialist and Communist societies, but it is not a part of a Republic. We need to do everything we can to eliminate the government from our industry and our business.

Step aside and allow the drilling needed to get the U.S. off foreign oil and back here at home!

The government needs to get tax rules and laws cleared up to promote investment in long-term capital improvements. It also needs to recognize that while Green Energy is a noble long-term goal, the reality is that petroleum is the energy and lubrication source for now. Most biobased products cannot compete in either cost or quality without substantial government subsidies which, in the long-term, are not sustainable. Let the market and technology work it out.

Give tax breaks to companies that bring manufacturing back from overseas. This would promote U.S. manufacturing and help the lubricant industry.

Promote U.S. manufacturing by easing overly burdensome regulations and promoting free market growth.

Require plants to perform condition-based maintenance as part of energy-savings initiatives.

Resolve to redouble the federal government’s efforts to provide incentives to promote U.S. manufacturing and conserve energy, for both businesses and individuals.

Pass a law mandating all U.S. government agencies including the military purchase only lubricants manufactured and sourced in the U.S.

Drill, baby, drill!

Reduce taxes for lubricant manufacturers and all companies related to the industry.

Promote technologies that are developed or in place that can improve the economy and the jobs market. Don’t legislate “wishful thinking” on targets like emissions, VOC, etc.

Change the tax code so that manufacturing in the U.S. is rewarded.

Promote U.S. manufacturing by freeing capital and balancing the federal budget.

Eliminate the EPA and the IRS. Give free enterprise a chance.

Focus on all types of energy, not just green energy. Approve the construction of the Keystone Pipeline. Expand drilling rights to states willing to invest off their coastlines.

Create more manufacturing jobs to support business in our country.

Ease restrictions on drilling for oil in the U.S.

Put a leash on the EPA.

There is nothing that government can do to help industry. Government involvement in any industry will certainly have a negative effect.

Provide additional incentives to small manufacturing units for solar panel installations.

The president can help all of the industries in the U.S. by ending the class war. By working with industries instead of portraying them as greedy destroyers of the environment and workers, perhaps this country can turn our economy back around.

Allow U.S. drilling to tap into the oil supply we have available so we can become independent of foreign oil producers. This would create jobs, boost the economy and, let’s hope, lower fuel prices at the pump.

Promote the use of gas-to-liquids technology and support more use of domestic natural gas in the transportation sector.

Manufacturing could be promoted by requiring goods manufactured and imported from overseas to be produced under the same requirements (i.e., environmental registrations, labor conditions, etc.) as those in the U.S.

Relax regulations.

Promote U.S. manufacturing and stop the spending.

The federal government should reduce tariffs and eliminate tariff loopholes. Make the tariff 3% for all items unless we have a mutual free trade agreement in place.

Increase drilling production. Cut down on the amount of time it takes for a permit. Leave us alone!

Lower taxes.

Heighten awareness for and promote alternative energy solutions to the nation’s and world’s energy problem. Wind turbines need lubricants as well, and as such the field of tribology will not be weakened by their encouraged success.

Promote the coal industry. Stop over regulating our natural resources.

Make the USA a more business-friendly country.

Get out of our way.

Conserve energy by lowering emissions requirements on vehicles so that they can get better fuel economy.

Reduce the corporate tax rate to 25% and create a transportation infrastructure bank to enhance construction projects using lubricants.

We must stop the U.S. job loss.

Let’s conserve energy and get the government out of the ethanol business. I am tired of giving up mpg due to fuel requirements.

Do you expect the number of employees where you work to increase, decrease or stay about the same in 2013 compared to 2012?
Increase 32%
Decrease 15%
Same 53%
Results based on a survey of U.S.-based TLT readers.

The EPA is overly involved in everyday business and making manufacturing in the U.S. more difficult.

Actually, all three could be encouraged with the implementation of some common sense regulations. Not more regulations but common sense, practical equipment and, in many instances, existing technology. For example, billions of dollars have been spent to burn coal cleanly and efficiently—let’s use the technology instead of outlawing coal. Anyone calculated how many solar panels it would take to replace a coal-fired power plant?

Change the tax code to encourage domestic manufacturing and penalize companies that exploit overseas tax shelters.

Simply get out of the way. Oil and gas have been part of the U.S. economy for more than 100 years. Stop the regulating-to-death approach until there is a viable alternative.

Solve the deficit and debt problems.

The best way to help the lubricants industry is to make decisions regarding taxation that encourage business to invest and expand.

Raise revenue by closing tax loopholes, tax investment income like ordinary income, reduce spending.

Lower taxes to spur economic growth.

I’m an engineer and don’t have any brilliant economic ideas, but it seems to me that a good place to start would be to work on our infrastructure. Obviously, the economy is important and improving it should take No. 1 position, regardless of the other concerns. However, after the economy improves, there will be only a narrow window of time to take action to greatly reduce the deficit or serious inflation will result.

(1.) Get off the backs of the petroleum industry. (2.) Lay out a long-term strategy for future stability of the economy for planning. (3.) Stop duplication/overlap of government agencies, federal and state.

Develop a real energy policy so American manufacturers can use lower energy pricing to grow manufacturing in the U.S. Take advantage of natural gas for a competitive advantage.

Promoting U.S. business is paramount.

Promote the construction of additional refining capacity, if not additional crude inflow (drilling, imports).

Stop using food products in motor fuels.

Tax breaks or other financial incentives for manufacturers to subsidize or reward the use of lubricants that improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon footprint.

Eliminate about half the federal government and put control back to the states.

U.S. manufacturing would be increased if the tax code was revised and simplified and corporate taxes were reduced (so companies would bring foreign profits back to the U.S.).

Help develop vegetable oil-based lubricants.

Drop any form of cap and trade, whether it is in CO₂ emissions or energy regulations. Look at what California has done with it. Many small companies can’t afford to do business there. That is what the rest of the nation will look like if cap and trade goes forward.

Loosen restrictions on drilling on federal land.

Realistically assess the cost of government regulations on industry.

Keep the Bush-era tax cuts.

Continuous posturing leads to stagnation. Make the hard decisions now, whatever they may be. The hardest thing for businesses of all types to overcome is uncertainty.
Editor’s Note: Sounding Board is based on an e-mail survey of 13,000 TLT readers. Views expressed are those of the respondents and do not reflect the opinions of the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers. STLE does not vouch for the technical accuracy of opinions expressed in Sounding Board, nor does inclusion of a comment represent an endorsement of the technology by STLE.