Gas Prices

Who hates high gas prices? Not me. I have hard time not laughing at the pump. I pull in after some hulking SUV, slide my card, pump my gas and I'm gone while he continues to fill his behemoth and drain his wallet. I drive a 1997 Honda Civic and get about 30mpg during my normal driving. Even with today's gas prices my fill-ups rarely go over $30 and I'd be willing to pay much more.

I strongly feel that we should be paying much higher taxes at the pump than we do now. On the order of $2/gallon with half to be spent on renewable energy research and subsidies and the other half to be used for mass transit and highway development. People would finally think twice about buying that 14mpg SUV with the 40 gallon tank if it was going to cost them $200 to fill it up.

Some people would say that a tax like this unfairly weighs on the poor and the middle class but I disagree. I think that this would create an incentive for more people to save money by using an improved mass transit system. I have considered taking the train to work but it would cost me considerably more than it now costs me to drive. If gas were to hit $5/gallon and/or the price of taking the train were to go down I would eagerly take the train. This would reduce traffic, cut pollution, and save the average lower or middle income family money.

Links:
The SUV Info Link
The Detroit Project
Hybrid Technologies (Building Electric Vehicles)
NRDC