[strider3700]

Actually our roads are pretty damn good. Each morning when I drive in I see people out there on ATV's picking up garbage along the side of the highway. I had a street sweeper come up my road about 3 weeks ago. Since it's a short dead end street in the middle of nowhere I never expected to see it.

I believe that gas taxes get thrown into a big pot like most of the rest of our taxes, from there you get interesting things. My health care is heavily covered by the feds, lots of my university schooling was covered by federal grants. Honestly I'm not sure how much of my grade schooling was covered by the feds, but it was a decent education.

[emersonbiggins]

If fuel efficiency becomes a driving force for American autos, we will no longer be able to pay for road construction/maintenance without a shift in the current gas tax structure.

How, you ask? As it stands, the tax is based on X cents per gallon, with inefficient vehicles (SUVs, trucks) shouldering the lion's share of the gas tax fund (though, by no means, "paying their way"). If we all switch to lighter, fuel-efficient cars and rail, the interstate system would have to switch appropriation measures to a % of $/gal basis, because the income the current system produces would drastically decline every year, leaving highway lobbies in the soup line .

Will PO mark the end of the interstate system as we know it?
Will it end up being perceived as a subsidy, like transit currently is?

[anthem]

I just wanted to add that I would prefer "pay as you go" but I am very fearful of the abuse of RFID tags to track individuals.

[emersonbiggins]

I just wanted to add that I would prefer "pay as you go" but I am very fearful of the abuse of RFID tags to track individuals.

I can understand that.
I'm equally as fearful of the GPS location transponder in most current cellular phones. One more step towards having that GPS implant...

[Carrie]

I just posted an article yesterday about the Oregon Dept. of Transportation proposing to tax motorists by the miles they drive. They even used peak oil in the report as a reason to switch to this system!

http://www.wweek.com/story.php?story=6550

Once peak oil reality sets in, I'm sure other states will be following suit.

[Wildwell]

UK government is looking at road pricing.

http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/d ... 29798.hcsp

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4610755.stm

Many people think it’s not going to be technically feasible to road price by satellite tracking. Nor will it be publicly popular. Since it was talked about very, very few people have been in favour of it. The only people that seem to be in favour are politicians and economists.

Long term they will have to do something because electric cars are not going to be as taxable. Simply selling off the trunk road system and tolling it using a smart card system with personal carbon credits is the likely way it will go.

[turmoil]

Without a doubt, this would further reduce demand. Whether we would then implement alternative technologies is another question (which can be discussed here as well).

Relevant Article

[seldom_seen]

The Washington state legislature recently passed a new gas tax.

However, the tax dollars will be used to build and update freeways and bridges to support the suburban cargo cult.

[Doly]

The gasoline tax has been implemented in Europe already, and it has shown its benefits: more efficiency and the prices of gasoline are rising less sharply in Europe. Plus, the governments in Europe can do things like freeze taxes on gasoline, or even reduce them, to compensate for the rising prices of oil.

Implementing a gasoline tax now in the USA would not help much, because it would increase the prices of gasoline when prices are rising fast and people are already having trouble with that. If it had been implemented 10 years ago, that would be a different story.

[shakespear1]

Question is where would the money be spent? Looking at the way it is spent today I would say NO.

[Kez]

I would be greatly in favor of starting a 10 cents per gallon tax January 1, 2006 if 100% of the money went to wind and solar projects.

Do I think it will happen? Nope. There isn't a politician alive today, ok well maybe a few, that care about long term solutions. None of them are willing to force people to suffer today so that 10 years from now we have cleaner air and more choices besides oil. Anyone who does so is guaranteed to not get elected next time around.

[meekoil]

Remember crazy little Ross Perot, said we needed a $.50 a gallon gas tax, and we could use it to pay off the deficit. Little guy dosen't seem so crazy now does he.

[anthem]

I said "Hell No" because the government already collects too much revenue. It might reduce demand, but like someone said above, the price has already risen so fast, and still going up, that demand destruction will begin to occur without any more tax.

What would be the purpose of this tax? More "investment" in alternative energy? I would say the goverment has plenty of resources already to use for alternative energy if they'd quit wasting so much money on military adventures like the one in Iraq.

[dinopello]

What would be the purpose of this tax? More "investment" in alternative energy? I would say the goverment has plenty of resources already to use for alternative energy if they'd quit wasting so much money on military adventures like the one in Iraq.

Maybe it should go to support the military adventures...

[NEOPO]

"giant suckin sound"

tax bad
oil bad
men bad

hulk smash!!@!!

[max_power29]

WHY ON EARTH WOULD I WANT TO GRANT THE GOVERNMENT MORE MONEY????!!!!!! and besides I'd rather the oil be depleted faster rather than a slow drawn out extremely painful process

[AmericanEmpire]

No, if they put a tax on gasoline that would just take away more of the average Americans discretionary spending which keeps the economy afloat. It would bring on the crash faster.

I need the average American to keep on spending like theres no tommorow so the economy will hold on for a bit more till I pay off my debts.

[MD]

Hell yes. Force the energy issue now by raising the tax as long as the revenues are allocated to sustainable change in culture.

Except it will never happen that way.

[kmann]

Being a card carrying fiscal conservative, I say all taxes are bad. However, sometimes the alternative is worse. If the money were used to soften the PO landing, then I would be for it. And while we're at it, let's increase all energy taxes.

[aahala]

Politically there's almost no chance of adding the tax now, but if
demand destruction is the purpose, now's the time.

We are much more likely to be in the price/demand sensitive range now
than prices of 8 months ago. Adding "x" to the price now will reduce
demand more than if we had added the same amount at much lower
prices.

What might be possible is to establish a price floor, well below
what many think gas will ever drop to, such as for 2006, the
retail can't drop below $2, $2.10 for 2007 etc. Any difference between
the free market price and the floor would be scooped up by the
government in taxes. This would reduce what has happened in the past,
a great fall in prices, leading to renewed consumption levels rather
than more permanant demand reduction.