The Ergosphere
Thursday, May 11, 2006
 

Now if I only had his head for money

Westexas reports that T. Boone Pickens advocates:

  1. a much stiffer gasoline tax,
  2. offset by payroll tax cuts.

His mind and mine are in the same rut.

I don't count for much, but if it makes enough sense to Pickens that he'll tout it, you better listen.

UPDATE 5/12:  Roger Ibbotson of MSN Money says the cure for oil addiction is to make people pay full price.

Related items:
Open letter to US voters
Thomas Friedman gets on board

 
Comments:
The more I think about this, the more I like it.

Of course, structuring this as revenue-neutral does nothing to address the rather impressive deficit the current Administration is racking up, but that's another story.
 
It seems that you are not alone, at least in the Great Not-so-white-anymore North.
 
Pickens, the CBC guy, the economist in the update... it's becoming a stampede.

ISTR some wag noting that man will always do the right thing after all alternatives have been exhausted.  I wonder if we've run out of them already?
 
Price tends to work. Here in Europe we have had higher fuel prices for years compared to the USA (mainly through taxes). This has resulted in cars with a lot more fuel efficency, and house heating systems that are a lot more efficient.
 
I think you'll find that was Winston Churchill, and the quote was "the Americans can always be relied on to do the right thing, once they've exhausted all the alternatives"..
 
Good grief.

Once this gets into Congress, I guarantee exactly one thing will happen.

ONLY the tax hike will make it through.
 
Considering the screams going on even when a giveback is part of the plan, I doubt that would happen; it really WOULD be political suicide.  (Though it would do something about the deficit.)

Some other bloggers are speculating that the Saudis are terrified of a sharp reduction in US gasoline consumption, either through price incentives (gas tax) or a recession.  And we're bound to get one or the other!
 
Some other bloggers are speculating that the Saudis are terrified of a sharp reduction in US gasoline consumption

Every Turbine is a Vote for Victory over Terrorism.

Good T-shirt, I think.
 
I did a post on what a CO2 for payroll tax swap might look like:
http://time-is-energy.blogspot.com/2006/09/look-at-co2-for-payroll-tax-swap.html

This was based on Al Gore's speech last week (just ran across this blog a couple days back--via energy outlook). Just FYI
 
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