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April 24, 2006
A Thought on the Price of Gas
Yesterday a dear friend sent me a very funny set of cartoons about the price of gas. As far as I am concerned the funniest one showed a grandfather speaking to his young grandson and saying,
Back in 1952, gasoline cost 20 cents a gallon, when you pulled up to the pumps three guys came out and checked your oil and your tires and cleaned your window.
To which the grandson responded,
This must be that thing they call 'SENILITY'
I thought this cartoon was particularly funny because I remember my dad buying gas at 20 cents a gallon and I remember paying 25 cents myself. Heck, I even remember when they gave away plates, flatware and drinking glasses plus an occasional toaster to get you to buy gas. And because I remember these things, it should be clear that I am at an age where concern about senility becomes a factor. And if my age doesn't make you worry I may be becoming senile, what I am about to say may convince you.
For a long time, I have felt that gas was too inexpensive and I still think so. I'm not sure what the right price should be, something north of $6.00 per gallon I suppose. But what ever it is, it needs to be high enough to cause widespread changes in behavior at the individual level, the corporate and governmental levels. And we are not near there yet. Until we reach that point, we will all gladly continue to destroy our planet and complain about dependence on foreign oil at an ever-increasing rate. Of course, we will get there in time but in an uncontrolled and counter productive way.
I'm not suggesting that the various corporations and countries that are in the gas and oil supply chain increase their prices and therefore their profits. What I am suggesting may sound worse to some of you then the idea that gas prices are too low. The increase in price should be in the form of a partly revenue neutral tax. The tax should be so designed that the poor are not hurt. In fact, they should be given public transportation grants or the like from part of the tax that is not revenue neutral. Another part of the increased revenue should go to building public transportation infrastructure in areas where it is currently the least used and hardest to design and to improving it where it is the most used. Yes, it does need to be phased in but in a matter of a few years not a few decades. But we should borrow against it to start the infrastructure tasks ASAP.
On top of this, we need something like a truly revenue neutral tax on greenhouse gas emissions at every point in the supply and use chain.
Any such plans will need a lot of careful thought. More than I am capable of but not more than our collective intelligence is capable of.
There is no doubt that until we find a way to deal with such a massive increase in fuel cost it would be harmful to my family, my friends and me. But with a couple of exceptions, we have been horrible stewards of the ecology. We need a little more motivation to accelerate the purchase of that hybrid car, increase our use of pubic transportation and the dozens of little things we can do to sustain our planet and our country and avoid worldwide disaster that will be far more painful than higher gas prices and taxes.
Posted by Duane Smith at April 24, 2006 12:17 PM | Read more on Current Events |
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Comments
Rather than have a gas tax, why not have a vehicle tax that is inverse to the MPG of the vehicle and paid annually?
Make it logarithmic too so that under 10MPG vehicles pay thousands per year and greater than 45MPG pay almost nothing. And that makes is easier to apply any income adjustments because they need be applied only once per year. This would best be done like the current excise tax (paid to state thru town).
Just a thought...
Posted by: David at April 25, 2006 9:20 AM
David,
If only vehicles used gas, I might agree with you. While they are the overwhelming major user, I think the problem needs to apply to all the other uses as well. Certainly something like your suggest could be part of the mix the leads to a solution. Perhaps one might what miles per gallon per occupied seat in the formula. But that is very hard to monitor. But we can't just have business as usual for much longer.
Posted by: Duane at April 25, 2006 9:46 AM
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