Dan's Outside

Rolling Back the Gas Tax?

What are they thinking?

I’m sure that the idea of “helping out the little guy” with a temporary gas tax roll-back must have played well with the McCain and Clinton focus groups, but how foolish do they think we are? If the cost of gas goes down a little bit by means of suspending this tax, won’t that just encourage those are just beginning to adjust their driving habits and perhaps think about a small car to not do so? And won’t the result be more demand for oil instead of less? And won’t that continue to drive prices up in the international oil markets? And won’t the end result be less available fuel and the same or higher prices?

The issue is not that gas taxes are too high. The issues is that there are a whole bunch of reasons why current oil consumption patterns simply cannot be sustained and the sooner we face up to this and begin to make necessary changes the better off we’ll be. Denying the obvious in this regard is dangerous and will prove be very costly.

May 3, 2008 - Posted by gdanmitchell | Environment