Running on fumes

Jewish World Review ^ | May 28, 2004 | Debra J. Saunders

[SJackson]

It must be an election year. Ten years ago, when he wasn't running for president, Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., mused about the value of raising the tax on gasoline by 50 cents a gallon (in 1994 dollars). Now, Kerry has hit the road to campaign for cheaper gas prices and to accuse President Bush of not lifting a finger to lower prices at the pump.

The Sierra Club, which endorsed Kerry for president, is on board with the idea of cheaper gas prices, too. What gives? I asked Sierra Club spokesman Dan Becker (who drives a hybrid car): Don't you guys still lust after high-priced fuel?

I say this because the environmentalists have long advocated steep levies on gasoline to discourage driving. In 1998, energy officials in the Clinton administration figured that meeting the greenhouse-gas-reduction goals in their beloved Kyoto global warming treaty would require a 50 percent spike in gas prices.

As American Enterprise Institute fellow Steve Hayward put it, "If you hook an environmentalist to a lie detector, he'll tell you our gasoline is too cheap and that we ought to have European-style taxes. But whenever the marketplace raises the price, they scream bloody murder."

Judging by Becker's answer, however, it seems that those days are gone. Sure, Becker said, he would like to see higher gas taxes, but it will never happen. "We'd be happy to meet with all the other advocates for a higher gas tax in a phone booth somewhere," he said.

Besides, he added, "We've seen 50 percent increases in gas prices over the past few years with no improvement in mass-transit ridership, increased carpooling or a reduction in driving distances. I don't think there's price elasticity" in gasoline.

I've thought as much for years. People commute in cars not only because gasoline is still cheap — as The New York Times reported, in 1981, gasoline cost almost $3 per gallon in current dollars — but because cars generally are more convenient than mass transit. And time is money. It is a good day when enviros finally recognize that social engineering schemes to get people out of their cars won't work.

Becker argued: If you can't change people, you can change cars. He approves of Kerry's support for new rules that would require carmakers to boost sedan fuel efficiency to 36 miles per gallon by 2015. Today's mandate: 27.5 mpg.

I like the idea, too. It's incremental and would allow Detroit to reduce auto pollution as technologies improve. It doesn't try to force consumers to make choices they won't make. It will boost the price of cars, but it also will result in cleaner air.

Bush and the GOP should sign on, but they won't. They're not going to do anything to endanger the Big Three's bottom line.

But here's what I don't like about Kerry's cheap-gas joy ride:

[PMCarey]

Becker argued: If you can't change people, you can change cars. He approves of Kerry's support for new rules that would require carmakers to boost sedan fuel efficiency to 36 miles per gallon by 2015. Today's mandate: 27.5 mpg.

I think we should also repeal the Second Law of Thermodynamics or at least phase it out by 2020.

[mewzilla]

Light truck sales are still soaring. Gas prices can't be too high.

[snopercod]

I think we should also repeal the Second Law of Thermodynamics or at least phase it out by 2020.

Why not? Under the 2nd law, entropy always increases. Under congressional law, bull$hit always increases.

[SpinyNorman]

"Becker argued: If you can't change people, you can change cars. He approves of Kerry's support for new rules that would require carmakers to boost sedan fuel efficiency to 36 miles per gallon by 2015. Today's mandate: 27.5 mpg."

They could meet that mandate and even better it if they would promote modern Diesel powered cars. Europe is full of them, ready to go, as is Japan, but the watermelons don't like them because they think they make too much soot.

They have been riding their bikes behind those big Diesel public transportation buses they so love!! Get behind a late model VW or Mercedes, and you won't even know it is a Diesel!!

Even better: they could promote the implementation of biodiesel, homegrown and clean. And doesn't require any significant change to current Diesel engines.

Just more Sierra Club hypocrisy.

[William Tell]

From the article: "Bush and the GOP should sign on, but they won't. They're not going to do anything to endanger the Big Three's bottom line."

How terrible of Bush and the GOP that they care what might happen to some of the stocks held by most American's retirement funds. Instead, Bush should insist that Detroit become "non-profit" and that retirement funds should be prohibited from selling their stock in the auto-makers. Then everything would be just fine...