Earth Equity News

Against a Gas Tax. By David Roberts, Grist, November 12, 2008. "As of Monday, the average price of gasoline in the U.S. was down to $2.22 a gallon, brushing up against $1.50 in some places. The price of oil was under $60/bbl. When gas and oil prices fall, there are always two reactions: first, great lamentations that alternative and renewable energy investments no longer make economic sense, and second, wishes (upon a star) that America had the political chutzpah to impose a new gas tax. Despite its appeal in some quarters, the gas tax is not a good idea. It costs enormous political capital and pays insufficient returns. If one had to be done... it ought to be like Troy Schneider suggests here -- revenue neutral, paid for with a reduction in payroll taxes. It would be a tidy, self-contained program, sheltering the revenue from pork-hungry hands; it would produce more of what we want (work) and less of what we don't (pollution)... What it will not do is significantly reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of the transportation sector. No reasonable price signal, on carbon generally or gasoline specifically, will do that. The solution is not more virtuous behavior or slightly more fuel economy, but new infrastructure."