The average state and federal tax on gas combined is 47.7 cents per gallon. What's scarier is the fact that the federal gas tax has been unchanged at 18.4 cents per gallon since 1993! See above post for a link to that info. Also in the above article it states that 60% of Americans think the federal gas tax increases every year. It doesn't even change for inflation, which means that 18.4 cents per gallon does a lot less towards rebuilding infrastructure today then it did in 1993. Gas is about $2.67 per gallon in Sarasota today, depending on where you fill up.
How do we expect to get off fossil fuels if we continue to fill up for incredibly cheap prices? We'll only get off fossil fuels this way when the demand starts to exceed the supply. I would argue we need a much higher gas tax in order to ween us off oil sooner than later. As my friend Tim put it, we didn't run out of stones before the Stone Age ended. Look what happened back in 2008 when gas went up to $4 a gallon. People started car pooling more, biking to work more, using public transportation more and even selling gas guzzling SUV's in order to get more fuel efficient cars. Demand went up for hybrid cars and demand went down for SUV's. Desperation leads to innovation. If gas goes up in price dramatically we will find alternative modes of transportation and learn how to get more bang for our buck with gas, i.e. much higher miles per gallon in our cars and trucks.
Now, some obvious problems arise with this. I read a book called Naked Economics that described what some of these problems would be as creative destruction. The idea is that as we move off of a certain technology there will basically be growing pains along with it. One of the creative destruction things along with getting off gas would be learning how to retrain mechanics to work on electric cars and hybrids rather than just your typical gas powered car like they do now. Obviously, this is doable, but would probably involve a pretty steep learning curve. Another problem is the car batteries found in electric cars include quite a bit of mercury, so we would have to put investment towards finding either a way of recycling that mercury once the battery is finished or how to make a battery without mercury to begin with. Another thing, and this is perhaps the hardest pill for me to swallow, is that it would effect poor people on a much higher percentage of their income than rich people. Maybe this could be offset by offering discounts on public transportation passes based on income level. The other problem, is that with making more electric cars are we just increasing our dependence on other fossil fuels such as coal? How would we incentivize towards getting off of coal for electricity at the same time? One suggestion is a Feed In Tariff, which Germany has successfully implemented to move towards a much higher renewable energy production.
I used to believe that Americans would want to get off oil just because it was the right thing to do. Now I realize that beyond environmentally conscious people and Christians who believe in creation care, this will simply not happen. Unfortunately, the only thing that really speaks to most Americans is what effects their pocketbooks. Rather than get off oil, we have many politicians, Republicans mainly but even some Democrats, who want to expand our offshore drilling. And this is after the BP disaster! Are you kidding me?! So not only will we run the risk of more oil spills (sure, we can increase the chance that it won't happen but the only sure way of not having an oil spill is by not drilling for it in the first place) but we will also prolong getting off oil due to the obvious consequence that gas will stay cheap or possibly get even cheaper? And this is coming from people who claim to have the best interests of their children in mind? How is raping the earth even further having the best interests of your children in mind? So we can live how we want now and in essence say "Screw you" to our children when we run out of fossil fuels and they're stuck having to find alternatives when all along we had the brains and technology to get off fossil fuels but simply lacked the will to make for a smoother transition? Are we really that reactionary as to not be proactive at all? Really?
How do we expect to get off fossil fuels if we continue to fill up for incredibly cheap prices? We'll only get off fossil fuels this way when the demand starts to exceed the supply. I would argue we need a much higher gas tax in order to ween us off oil sooner than later. As my friend Tim put it, we didn't run out of stones before the Stone Age ended. Look what happened back in 2008 when gas went up to $4 a gallon. People started car pooling more, biking to work more, using public transportation more and even selling gas guzzling SUV's in order to get more fuel efficient cars. Demand went up for hybrid cars and demand went down for SUV's. Desperation leads to innovation. If gas goes up in price dramatically we will find alternative modes of transportation and learn how to get more bang for our buck with gas, i.e. much higher miles per gallon in our cars and trucks.
Now, some obvious problems arise with this. I read a book called Naked Economics that described what some of these problems would be as creative destruction. The idea is that as we move off of a certain technology there will basically be growing pains along with it. One of the creative destruction things along with getting off gas would be learning how to retrain mechanics to work on electric cars and hybrids rather than just your typical gas powered car like they do now. Obviously, this is doable, but would probably involve a pretty steep learning curve. Another problem is the car batteries found in electric cars include quite a bit of mercury, so we would have to put investment towards finding either a way of recycling that mercury once the battery is finished or how to make a battery without mercury to begin with. Another thing, and this is perhaps the hardest pill for me to swallow, is that it would effect poor people on a much higher percentage of their income than rich people. Maybe this could be offset by offering discounts on public transportation passes based on income level. The other problem, is that with making more electric cars are we just increasing our dependence on other fossil fuels such as coal? How would we incentivize towards getting off of coal for electricity at the same time? One suggestion is a Feed In Tariff, which Germany has successfully implemented to move towards a much higher renewable energy production.
I used to believe that Americans would want to get off oil just because it was the right thing to do. Now I realize that beyond environmentally conscious people and Christians who believe in creation care, this will simply not happen. Unfortunately, the only thing that really speaks to most Americans is what effects their pocketbooks. Rather than get off oil, we have many politicians, Republicans mainly but even some Democrats, who want to expand our offshore drilling. And this is after the BP disaster! Are you kidding me?! So not only will we run the risk of more oil spills (sure, we can increase the chance that it won't happen but the only sure way of not having an oil spill is by not drilling for it in the first place) but we will also prolong getting off oil due to the obvious consequence that gas will stay cheap or possibly get even cheaper? And this is coming from people who claim to have the best interests of their children in mind? How is raping the earth even further having the best interests of your children in mind? So we can live how we want now and in essence say "Screw you" to our children when we run out of fossil fuels and they're stuck having to find alternatives when all along we had the brains and technology to get off fossil fuels but simply lacked the will to make for a smoother transition? Are we really that reactionary as to not be proactive at all? Really?
1 comment:
wow. reading your blog is like reading my own script inside my head. so so refreshing to be reminded that there are others out there that passionately care about our community, environment, and faith in God all in the same breathe. it gets tiring when the world is constantly creating false oppositions with these topics and people on all sides fall victim to such ignorance.
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