Please. With an accumulated public debt of ten trillion and a daily deficit averaging three-point-four billion, you are seriously contemplating how you'd like to spend small increases in tax revenue? (A dollar per gallon in taxes gives you much less than a billion per day.)

As far as I know every president has said they would reduce imported oil but done very little. I would increase the tax to European levels steadily over the next 4/5 years and to a stated plan whilst at the same time providing a credit of say 80% of the proceeds to all adults. Thus those who use less (e.g. by not driving or driving less or having an economical car) would "profit" and those who use more would pay for the pleasure of their gas guzzlers. The remaining 20% should be used to improve the infrastructure, e.g. rail and/or a national electric grid that would allow electricity produced by renewables to be used anywhere.

Let's say this would eventually raise USD 200 per barrel x 20m per day = USD 4 billion per day. A fairly powerful incentive to decrease oil consumption.

Something would have to be done for essential users like farmers, a reduced cost diesel, aka red diesel in the UK, but maybe this already exists in the US?

That's really easy: it has to be rebated on a per capita basis, both to defuse anti-tax objections; to eliminate drag on the economy; and most importantly, to make it politically possible to pass it!

As it is, Obama has said it's not politically possible right now, what with the credit crunch and the upcoming taxcut stimulus. It has to be rebated to have any chance at all...

deleted by author as inappropriately silly