Joyce Melton

Here's a deal I'd go for:

Oil companies kick some of their profits into a fund, for every dollar they contribute they get to take that dollar and some percentage of another one off the tax rolls. The fund is administered by a board of university professors, chosen by the oil companies and approved by Congress and the president. The monies in the fund are to be used for funding productive (engineering, not pure science) research into energy replacement technologies.

Any patents developed by funded research belong to the inventors and the fund, 50/50 or whatever other deal is worked out. After ten years, evaluate the fund and decide whether to continue the program or cash it out and return the monies to the contributors with shares of the profits. At this point the money is again taxable.

- Joyce