BearCat, while I agree that a gasoline tax is a reasonable idea, a carbon tax would be more logical and more easily managed. Also, other taxes, preferably on other things like cyberspace, should be cut by the same amount or more BEFORE the new tax is whacked on.
I'd make it a carbon tax at the border.
The reason alternative fuels don't get much steam up, is not because of boom bust cycles in carbon prices, [or gasoline], but because mined carbon is a cheap source of energy.
Because CO2 isn't showing up as a problem in the climate [despite a century of production and decades of concern], the reason for carbon taxes should not be because of fear of global warming.
Pollution reduction is a fair reason [not CO2 but actual muck like particulates and pollution derived from producing steel, roads and everything else].
Another reason for carbon taxes at borders is that a nation is what's inside borders and taxes at borders [if not nit picky] can be used to defend the realm which is what countries need to do.
It seems silly to send $billions to Islamic Jihad in Saudi Arabia while taxing locally produced things such as cyberspace which can replace oil consumption.
It isn't alternative fuels which are needed so much as congestion tolls, and electronically, photonically and magnetically controlled traffic. Vehicles should auto-drive at high speed 1 metre apart. Cyberspace should run traffic flow, not large, stupid, slow-reacting, inattentive, primates clutching a steering wheel.
Mqurice |
