Posted on 05/20/2012 9:26:10 PM PDT by tsowellfan
If we want to reduce fossil fuel consumption, I say, we should raise the price of gasoline to $7 a gallon.
Reason: Today this country burns through 21 million barrels of oil per day, 60 percent of which is imported. Only with some shared economic pain will we ever change our habits.
High gas prices will force us to think before we drive. It will encourage mass transit use, car pooling, and the sale of more fuel-efficient cars.
The auto industry will not suffer because it has learned that it can charge more for cars that are cheaper to build if those cars have a few luxury touches.
Individuals will spend more dollars on gasoline, even factoring in the reduced usage, but American motorists are notoriously inefficient and have traditionally done an awful job of planning their errand runs.
Average families will feel the pain, but, in my view, a move to less-expensive beer and other consumer goods should go a long way toward softening this inconvenience.
Drivers who own gas-guzzling pickup trucks will be motivated to carpool or take mass transit where its available.
Because mass transit is not as widely available as it should be, much of the gas price increase would be allocated to improving our railroads and creating more bus lanes.
As for diesel fuel, I would leave it at its current price of $4 a gallon. Yes, that will encourage the sale of diesel vehicles, but despite the hue and cry of environmentalists about all things diesel, those cars today are just as fuel efficient as the gas-burning kind.
Large diesel trucks, of course, must remain because they deliver the majority of the goods we consume.
My proposition is simple enough. Higher fuel prices mean less fuel consumed, and that means cleaner air and reduced dependence on imported fossil fuels.
A tough proposal? Sure. But Americans are a tough people capable of making hard decisions when it comes to spending.
This nanny state ignoramus is your typical stage one thinker of the Left. He doesnt think of the consequences of his plan.
Certainly higher fuel prices will push more people in to mass transit and car pooling and more efficient cars but what of other effects of the higher price of gas.
What of the consequences of people putting off the short trips that low fuel prices allow. What happens when people make fewer trips to the store? They buy fewer things which mean lower profits for retailers which mean that they can hire fewer employees.
If there are fewer cars on the road that must necessitate that there is less wear and tear on those cars which will mean fewer new car sales and less need for car repair. Fewer cars sales is fewer cars produced, fewer cars produced is fewer automaker employees. Fewer car repairs is fewer car repair technicians.
All of these secondary effects lead to tertiary effects all of which lead to displaced workers and more unemployed and under employed US citizens.
Low cost energy has been the engine of growth and high standards of living in the United States for more than a century. The freedom to get in your car and go where you want when you want is an ideal that is as close to the American heart as is the right to vote and right to bare arms.
Let's see this little busybody writer lug one of these babies onto a subway car...
I am sure that it will not apply to government/umion workers.
Anyone who is in the club is excluded from laws,rules,ethics or prosecution and in most instances difficult or unprepared questions.
Here is a partial list: an “important” Politicians,Media, any member of the “minority” community the media uses to make a fake political point,Holywood actors, Union thugs,illegals, leftist protestors,selcted Federal Banks,ANYONE involved in a Green company that fails in a matter of month, PBS, and generally anyone who wants to destroy the USC.
False claim.
We use about 16.3 million BPD of crude oil products. If you count Natural Gas Liquids (which is part of the number usually claimed, it rises to less than 19 MMBPD.
Petroleum Product Supplied
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_cons_psup_dc_nus_mbblpd_m.htm
And if I remember correctly, isn't anywhere near self-sustaining. There are MASSIVE tax payer subsidies for all the major mass-transit systems, including NY's and SF's.
Mark
Its time to buy Harley Davidson stock, seriously.
Their will be an explosion of new motorcycle riders on the road, most will opt for 250cc 70mpg bikes. But still even a late model fuel injected big engine will get over 50mpg.
My 2009 Yamaha 1300 Tourer gets over 50mpg and costs me about $3 in gas to commute to and fro from work, the Silverado dually however costs me about $18 a day to feed its gas habit.
I truly thought this was satire! This guy needs a 1 way ticket to Venezuela. There’s no changing this guys idiocy.
That’s not even one tenth of the tools I carried to work each day in my truck when I was a carpenter. Maybe he thinks all the guys with utility trucks and vans just drive those things around as “red neck” status symbols.
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