MIT released a study in their Autumn 2011 Energy Futures magazine, that states that current energy regulations are not cost-effective and a better way to solve this would be to apply a "moderate tax on gasoline" that would "elicit the same reduction at a sixth of the cost." The study also states that it is currently not politically feasible to establish this tax within the USA.
I have no argument that people should be more conservative with their driving. It's believable that if people drove less then gas emissions would be reduced. Think global act local concept 101.
Putting a mandatory gas tax to force a person to drive less where I have mixed feelings.
The Environmental News Network released an article yesterday titled: What really are the best ways to cut gasoline use? This article really pushes for the gas tax.
Though it's true that people tend to react to the loss of money from their own pocket but I grew up in the country, where the public transportation system was unreliable at best and nonexistent on a bad weather day. On the flip side, almost every family I knew growing up had a pickup truck. Pickup trucks are necessary for farm life, there is no way a Toyota Camry can handle driving through the field or pull machinery. But a fair few didn't require the pickup truck's abilities, why do they insist on having them? The gas mileage is horrible, they're expensive and they're downright uncomfortable for long distance trips.
Trusting people to reduce their car usage on their own is naive. Some people won't care regardless of the tax and won't adjust their driving accordingly. Some people can't because they have a long commute. The last thing we need is to create legislation to solve a problem only to have it removed a few years later.
This problem only cries louder for the USA to develop reliable public transportation.
Hey I just went to a hearing today about CAFE standards that the EPA is going to propose. It's that car manufacturers start making cars with 54.5MPG average from the years 2017-2025. Anyway it will reduce emissions and oil use by a lot. As of now we are using $1 billion worth of oil a day!!!!! During the hearing some manufacturers were talking about how the manufacturing emissions may go up during the production of these cars. I personally am going to look into those statements more but if you have any questions about this let me know :)
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