The Price of Gas

I've got this tee shirt that shows a guy blowing his brains out with a gasoline nozzle. That shirt gets a lot of attention, usually a thumbs up or a snarky remark about the damn gas companies, but I wonder if there isn't a bigger question here. We all know how tough it can be for many people (myself included) to endure $50 fill ups or $500 credit card bills each month. And I've been hearing from the news that higher gas prices can slow the recovery as people cut back other spending to pay for gas, not a good thing, I know.

But, and it's a big BUT, when gas went through the roof back in '08 several really good things happened as well and might be happening again even as I write this. People started making better decisions about the car they were about to buy. And Amtrak and the bus lines were all reporting record ridership. And air quality started to improve in many cities. And car companies rushed to redesign their big SUV's (just now hitting showrooms, getting much better mileage). Something happened that hadn't for a long time. People started to think about the cost of energy and how they used it. Sure it's a hardship when energy costs rise but we've been living with cheap gas for forty years (look it up if you don't believe me).

Here's what I would propose. Slowly raise the gas tax, maybe a penny every month, so that we would know that the next time we have to make a car purchase decision fuel would be a little more. Now you may not like this proposal much and I can't blame you but realize that in '08 and again this year because of Libya and all, every cent of the increase went either to the oil companies or the dictators who control the oil in their little fiefdoms. Not one cent of these increases went to the US Government to make road and bridge repairs or pay for mass transit. Not one cent. So if we raise the tax a little at a time that increase stays with us to fix our crumbling infrastructure or help keep bus fares down for people without cheap transportation.

Finally, remember this. The Federal gas tax has stayed at 18.4 cents since 1993! Not one cent of the rising cost of gas has stayed here to help pay for all the things that need to be done and we keep fighting wars over it. Maybe a change in our habits will keep a few Americans from dying overseas to protect our supply of cheap oil, no?