On an Oil/Gas Tax

September 16th, 2005 Chris Posted in Uncategorized |

Ted recently posted about gas mileage, energy policy, and the idea of a windfall tax on energy companies. Read the whole discussion first if you want, but my response stands alone pretty well too:

One of the main problems with energy policy in this country is that there’s very little incentive for politicians to stake out the position which will be beneficial to us all in the long term. The reasons for this are twofold. The first is that the public is fickle and demands immediate results. The second is that when you’re up for re-election in a close race, that big donation from the oil companies is likely to help more than appeasing a few environmentalists. This goes double if you’re a democrat, because you’re likely going to get the environmental vote anyway.

Something else to think about: In a recent poll, 8 out of 10 people say that drivers should buy less SUVs and get cars with better mileage. Yet, SUVs and trucks still make up roughly 50% of all new vehicles purchased in the US.

I’d like to believe that Americans are smart people. They say they’re concerned with global warming, and the ozone hole, and gas prices, and foreign oil dependence, and don’t want to tear up our wilderness. However, when it comes time to act, they do so with a selfishness and short-sightedness that is appalling.

Those who have discussed politics with me know that I have a libertarian streak mixed in with my liberalism. I value privacy a great deal, and the last thing I want to see is a “nanny state”. However, it’s hard not to see that people in the US are acting childish when they exhibit behavior like this.

Maybe a gas/energy tax is necesssary to encourage behavior that is beneficial to our society and our earth as a whole. Obviously moral incentive to do the right thing isn’t enough, so let’s give people a financial reason to change. Use all the money from the tax to fund things like renewable energy research and public transportation.

I don’t think that this should be done as a windfall tax, per say. Punishing corporations for making large profits isn’t fair. However, I think doing it for reasons like security (reducing dependence on foreign oil) and the commoon good (less pollution, smog, global warming, etc) are perfectly acceptable.

Don’t we already tax things like cigarettes, liquor and gambling disproportionately? Why not tax the US’s other great addiction - Oil.