Robert you might want to check up on the source for:

Now, three degrees Centigrade doesn’t seem a lot to you, that’s 11° F

Since 3C is 5.4F (not 11), something must have been misquoted somewhere along the line.

Incidentally a good post, and I am 99.7% in agreement with you here (misquotes notwithstanding).

There should be no magic number for a fuel tax rise that has some effect. I expect $.01/gallon would have roughly 1% the effect of $1.00/gal. It is already admitted that our federal gas tax is too low -it was set at $.18 decades ago, when that amount roughly paid for roadwork. But now we need several times that amount, if roadways are to be fully funded from the gastax. Add in a military intervention tax, of say $1.00/gallon. I could accept such a tax, which is actually market neutral (gas roughly paying its way). But gas taxes have been very successfully demagoged in the past, so I doubt Obama will risk proposing one.