2009-01-25
High School Senior: Breaking Addictions Requires Accountability and Rewards. By Aditya Rajagopalan, Choate Rosemary Hall News, January 25, 2009. "A few days before Christmas, I opened my laptop to the following headline: 'Truck and SUV sales rising as gas prices drop.' Americans had once again forgotten what it meant to pay $4 per gallon of gas, or $140 per barrel of oil. Soon, car companies will once again lose their incentive to produce energy-efficient cars and will again begin to produce inefficient SUVs and pickup trucks... No matter how many millions we pour into alternative energy research, and no matter how many how many fuel efficiency standards we set, Americans will not buy energy-efficient cars unless they individually can benefit from buying the more expensive fuel-efficient car... If President Obama is truly committed to energy independence, he must implement a carbon tax -- a tax for each pound of carbon released into the atmosphere. The carbon tax reflects the costs to society of burning fossil fuels by transferring that cost to the individual... Dr. Phil's Seven Steps to Breaking Your Addiction lists the sixth and seventh steps as 'be accountable' and 'reward yourself.' It's time that we make those who are driving SUVs accountable for not paying for the costs they are imposing on the society. Only then will we be able to reward actions that help society -- actions that break our addiction to fossil fuels."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment