Gas is expensive!
Here in my neighborhood, the price of regular unleaded is hovering around $3.50 per gallon. Yesterday, I spent almost $60 filling the tank of my minivan. All the more reason I am amazed that General Motors is currently advertising a brand new Hummer 3. In addition to taking up 1-1/2 spaces in the parking lot, this behemoth boasts a rather anemic 16 miles per gallon in the city. Clearly, if there are still folks willing to shell out almost $40,000 for this gas guzzler, the painful reality has not yet set in.
The reality is that we are dependent on petroleum fuel. Further, until Americans feel enough pain in their pocketbooks, we will not adopt the kind of vigorous consumer conservation and manufacturing innovation and exploration we need to keep our environment clean and break our dependence on foreign petroleum. Americans talk about conservation, alternative fuel sources and about untangling our relationships with the oil-producing countries of the Middle East, but we are not doing nearly enough.
It's not that we're doing nothing. Sales of hybrid vehicles have increased, businesses have begun to encourage workers to carpool, and there is ongoing research into hydrogen as a source of clean fuel. However, Hybrids represent only one percent of total U.S. auto sales. The highways are still filled with single drivers, and the use hydrogen and other alternative fuel sources still remain in their infancy. But Americans are using more gas than ever. According to the American Automobile Association, in spite of record gas prices, travel this summer increased over last summer, and travel by automobile, plane and bus was at a record high over this past Labor Day weekend.
As loudly as Americans cry the blues over gas prices, the truth is we remain spoiled. Gas prices in Europe are two to three times as high as they are here in the states. The single most effective way in which Europeans have encouraged the type of behavior we seek here in the states is through taxation. Sixty percent of the prices Europeans pay for fuel goes to the government in the form of taxes.
Generally speaking, I oppose tax increases of this sort primarily because government tends to be so inefficient that taxpayers rarely see the kind of return on investment they would reap from the private sector. I am also keenly aware that if tax hikes are a slap in the face to the wealthy, they are a punch in the gut to the working class and small business owner. The higher gas prices necessary to moderate our consumption and spark advances in energy technology will be felt most by those least able to afford it. The challenge to policy makers is in how to strike the balance between prices that are high enough to influence consumer behavior but are not so high that those least able to afford them will be devastated. What seems clear is that there are few painless options. Besides, at the end of the day, breaking our dependence on petroleum and increasing our fuel efficiency will ultimately make travel cheaper and safer for everyone.
After my Fred Sanford moment at the gas station, my boys and I went looking at new cars (I felt the need to sniff that new car smell and fantasize about sitting on seats that are not encrusted with juicy juice and old chocolate bars.). My sons and I fell in love with one particular car that offered a whopping average of 19 MPG. Had I cash on hand, I might have given serious thought to driving it off the lot -- a good indication that as expensive as gas is, it may not yet be expensive enough.
