Are they doing this on purpose?

WASHINGTON, March 4 (Reuters) - U.S. oil and natural gas producing companies should not receive federal subsidies in the form of tax breaks because their businesses contribute to global warming, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told Congress on Wednesday.

It was one of the sharpest attacks yet on the oil and gas industry by a top Obama administration official, reinforcing the White House stance that new U.S. energy policy will focus on promoting renewable energy sources like wind and solar power and rely less on traditional fossil fuels like oil as America tackles climate change.

"We don't believe it makes sense to significantly subsidize the production and use of sources of energy (like oil and gas) that are dramatically going to add to our climate change (problem). We don't think that's good economic policy and we think changing those incentives is good for the country," Geithner told the Senate Finance Committee at a hearing on the White House's proposed budget for the 2010 spending year.

The Obama administration's budget would levy an excise tax on oil and natural gas produced in the Gulf of Mexico, raising $5.3 billion in revenue from 2011 to 2019.

Either Geithner is setting himself up for a release having realized he's in way over his head; or Obama gave him the marching orders and is purposely trying to tank the economy for some nefarious reason...or these folks in charge just don't have any idea what they're doing.

Taxes to energy companies are passed onto the consumer (multiple times...by the way). While you pay more at the pump for your personal vehicle...the transport companies pay more to move produce, housewares etc...to your retail and grocery story of choice. The retail outlet pays more...so you end up paying more. Everything you buy becomes more expensive. And, all of this is based on a non-proven theory of "climate change (problem)."

How's the market doing this morning?

It's tanking as of 11:50 AM EST.