The Oil Drum

255 comments on DrumBeat: June 16, 2007

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mr f on June 16, 2007 - 10:14am

Good luck convincing Americans of "taxing the shit out of" gas. From reading news accounts in my Google news alerts, plus the always superb stories edited into the DrumBeats, I know that already, at these extremely low prices, the "average" American driver is not happy. From what I can gather the majority consensus seems to be "why are these prices so high?" (Of course, they're not, as the last gas-price post eloquently shows). One lacking critical intelligence but fully loaded on cornucopian idealism quickly comes to the conclusion, as I like to repeat a lot, that either:

"They're gouging us, this isn't fair!"

Or it's the tired saw "It's the government's fault!"

Both actually kind of true, if you play with the semantics a bit. Profits and "gouging" is really just a meaningless lawyer's debate, and the other defense mechanism is simply imaginative thinking, something we Americans excel at. It is as much the entire society's fault as it is the government's. It is illustrative of how bankrupt the entire political spectrum is. Given the American Idol/MTV mode of intellectual discourse we have amongst the masses in the US, taxing gas would make 'em a lot more unhappy--not to mention upsetting the oil companies, our cultural viceroys.

Don't get me wrong, I agree with you. It is just political suicide for whoever attempts it.

[edit: "If you were to spend the money (that has been pi$$ed away in Iraq) on a good cause, what would you spend it on and how much impact would it make?" Answer: 435000000000/300000000 ... I would have given every American $1450. That's how you buy votes! Seriously though, there is a lot that half a trillion could be used for, paying down the debt, Manhattan/Apollo energy program, etc etc.]

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River on June 16, 2007 - 11:02am

Mr f, I find it difficult to get most of my long term friends to understand PO so I dont think any politician is going to try it with the voters. A few gentle words about PO causes their eyes to glaze over. It reminds me of the looks on the faces of those in algebra 101. Tuned out!

If I could spend the money that has been spent in the Iraqi fiasco I would put it into high speed commuter rail and expanding the standard freight rail. I would also mandate that the GM electic car be brought back with the new batteries that would extend the range to 300 miles without recharge. Most of the electric cars would be recharged at night during off peak hours for the electical grid. The electric car would have met the needs of 90% of the commuters in the US. They were taken off the market because they (almost) never required maintence and would have destroyed the auto makers business model.

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Laurence Aurbach on June 16, 2007 - 11:16am

The federal government really has no choice but to raise gas taxes within the next year or two. If not, the highway fund will reach a $5.7 billion deficit in 2010 and will be forced to cut obligations by 42 percent ($18.2 billion) from the 2009 obligation level.

The only question is how much the tax will be raised. The leading industry group AASHTO says a 3-cent increase is necessary to avoid a major cut and a 10-cent increase is required restore purchasing power to 1993 levels.

AASHTO also calls on state and local governments to increase transportation funding by $110 billion over the next eight years. They say increased tolls will be necessary on top of traditional funding sources.