Electric Josh

Senators demand that someone get tough on big oil, but not too quickly, so that their staff may continue to idle large SUV's while waiting to drive them exceptionally short distances in the beautiful Washington springtime. Nice. I'd personally like to see a demand-side incentive for better fuel efficiency: gas whose price is inversely proportional to the fuel efficiency of the car you're putting it into. Drive a Prius (60 mpg)? Gas costs what it costs. Drive a Civic (30 mpg)? Gas costs double, plus you need to buy twice as much to get the same distance, for a 4x increase in the cost of every mile driven. Drive a Yukon (15 mpg)? Gas costs four times as much per gallon, on top of which you need to buy four times as much gas, for a total of 16x the money you could be paying. The fifteen-fold surcharge could then be used as payment toward the wars that are fought over secure access to energy resources. But you can afford it; you bought an SUV, right? Everyone wins!
[permalink ]