The Low Down On Green Living
May 1st, 2008
What Do You Think About Gas Tax Rebates?
Stumble it!
We don’t often venture into the realm of politics, but sometimes we see things we’re forced to comment on. In this case we’re alarmed to see both a leading Republican and Democratic candidate for president proposing something troubling for the environment — the “summer gas tax break” supported by both Senators John McCain and Hillary Clinton. While we are certainly feeling the pain of high energy bills too, we feel this proposal won’t help in that respect and will continue to send the wrong message about how to cure our addiction to oil.
This plan is flawed on many levels. First, it would cut federal tax revenues by almost $10 billion at a time when we can ill afford any further government budget shortfalls. Second, and of greatest concern to us at Low Impact Living, it incentivizes Americans to drive more this summer — precisely when we are needing to encourage gas conservation and support lower carbon emissions. Third, it would very likely have no positive impact on American’s wallets — increasing demand for gas without increasing supply would almost necessarily raise the price of gas this summer. That would mean the savings would end up in the coffers of big oil companies and the OPEC nations, not American consumers. Finally, Thomas Friedman of the New York Times points out that at the same time all we hear about is this ill-conceived short-term plan, our government is actively stymying the long-term initiatives that will help cut energy prices and global warming long term:
“Few Americans know it, but for almost a year now, Congress has been bickering over whether and how to renew the investment tax credit to stimulate investment in solar energy and the production tax credit to encourage investment in wind energy. The bickering has been so poisonous that when Congress passed the 2007 energy bill last December, it failed to extend any stimulus for wind and solar energy production. Oil and gas kept all their credits, but those for wind and solar have been left to expire this December. I am not making this up. At a time when we should be throwing everything into clean power innovation, we are squabbling over pennies.”
Seems pretty stupid, eh? What do you think? We’d love to hear your perspective on the issue!
To read more please see this editorial from the LA Times, “Clinton’s and McCain’s plans for a summer gas-tax suspension won’t solve anything.” The New York Times also covered the issue, both in a Thomas Friedman op-ed piece (subtly titled “Dumb as We Wanna Be”) and in their editorial “The Gas-Guzzler Gambit.”
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Comments
mcark
May 3rd, 2008 at 3:46 am
Spoken like a middle class citizen of the city. The rest of us Americans are being serious hurt by the rise in gas prices. It’s easy to say drive less or use public transportation but I cannot do those things because I go to school 25 miles away. Also, it’s important to note that it’s difficult to move to cities because of mortgage crisis. Also, my wife drives 30 miles to work and the gas prices has erased her yearly raises. There’s a big issue in environmental friendly society and the issue is class struggle. There is a reason why lower class Americans fail to see the same concerns for the planet. Treehugger.com has had myriad articles about the recession forcing people to spend less money, almost like it was just tough love for those of us not smart enough to make enough money for a hybrid, solar panels, and a greenhouse. There’s a serious disconnect between the movement and the day to day life of the typical American.
Daryn
May 6th, 2008 at 8:36 am
I hate to point this out so soon after the last person placed a post that highlighted an example of it, but Americans put themselves into a very difficult situation through their desire to live a long distance away from work and activities, relying on cheap gas or public transportation to get to work, school, etc. This has been in process for many years now while gas costs remained artificially low, and will present some very difficult decisions in the future as energy costs rise out of bounds. It is my belief that much of the rural or suburban housing will lose value due to rising heating, cooling and transportation costs, and there will be a movement toward utilization of multi-family dwellings such as condominium towers and apartments that are located near work centers. The lost value on those dwellings placed at a distance from the center of town will present another painful issue, possibly worse than the current mortgage crisis. People will need to move closer to town to be able to afford to continue to work, go to school, etc, but will be unable to sell their homes. Also, the laws of supply and demand will kick in, creating a high-demand market for the multi-family dwellings. Prices for these units are already crazy high, and my guess is that they’ll continue to rise. So, efforts should be focused on creating affordable housing that is also energy efficient and close to town centers or at least public transportation.
Susan J. Hass
May 6th, 2008 at 9:13 am
Suggest you read “The Long Emergency” by James Howard Kunstler. It addresses just these issues, and is quite an eye-opener.
R
May 6th, 2008 at 9:31 am
Sorry but I have to comment on this. I agree and disagree. There are some points I’d like to make - I agree that the summer tax cuts are going to do NO good and are just a temporary way for our politicians to try and please us for the moment. We should all know how the largest oil companies in the world have all posted ridiculous profits over the last couple of years. Yet we, the consumers, are the ones being taxed most at the pumps. This tax relief will take our consumer tax away temporarily, but it will be put back on in the fall. While the oil companies are the ones that should be obsorbing that tax perminantly, thus reducing thier profit margin. This could cause some discouraging sales toward our country, but we have to go with the lesser evil and let our enginuity lead us through. We should all keep in mind that the high gas prices could a good thing. If you look at what they pay per LITER in the UK, Europe, and other developed areas, it is way HIGHER than what we pay per gallon, and it always has been. That rising price trend has forced our overseas friends into driving less, or driving more fuel efficient vehicles, and laying down rail lines for the transportation of freight. Lets not all forget that every thing we buy, eat, consume, etc is shipped by truck in the US. Weather it comes from 10 miles away, or 1,000 miles away. These trucks average about 7-8 MPG in Diesel fuel. The trucking industry really feels this gas crunch. The rise in prices will affect every American no matter how much we try to NOT drive anyway. The bigger picture shows us that we need a better way to move our freight across our country. Lets find a solution for that… train? And we all know that unless you are in a city with over 6 mil. people, the local public transportation is NOT an efficient way to get to and from work. Some of us have 2 or 3 jobs - I have 3. There is no way to balance the bus schedule to get from job to job to job to grocery store to home. Oh and lets discuss our airplane industry here too. We should all be pushing for carbon fiber planes like Boeing’s new 787, if it ever reaches the runways. They are more fuel efficient and can help in the over all solution. The US has a LOT of land to cross, that is a fact. Within cities there is travel involved for our survival. And goods and people need to get from city to city using the most efficient way possible. We should start to invest in that solution now. Discouraging people from travel to see friends and family is the wrong thing to do. We need to travel. We need to see our relatives and friends. And summer is the best weather to travel in. And we need to drive to work every day. So what is the real big picture solution?
Personally - Hybrids are still not an affordable solution to me and many Americans. I average about 20 MPG currently and it’s not enough, I know that. So what options do I have? I’m not wealthy enough to have another payment each month that I can’t afford. My 20 MPG vehicle is paid off already. So, I’ve been looking into is some older cars for about $1,000 - some older cars can average 30-35 MPG. Check out the stats on fueleconomy.gov. But will I find something reliable enough for my lifestyle? Or will I have to take on a 4th job just to pay for the transportation between the first 3 jobs?
Tony
May 6th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
High gas prices are painful, and forgive the generalization, but Americans have demonstrated very clearly that the only way to get them to move in a positive direction is to hit them in the wallet. We live in a petroleum based society and the transition to a society based on other sources of energy is going to get a whole lot more painful for all of us. Fasten your seatbelts because it’s time for we Americans to ‘Man-Up’!
Jon
May 7th, 2008 at 6:08 am
I’m a Sierra Club member but have always had the opinion that tree-huggers must have policies that make fiscal sense. The suspension of the gas tax doe not make any fiscal sense for this country and every financial opinion is in agreement. I’ve included a link to Jonathan Alter’s article in Newsweek to add to those already posted.
Additionally, one of the most admired Financial guru’s in this country, Warren Buffet was on Fox Business yesterday saying it wasn’t good policy.
Let’s call it what it is: Political pnadering at it’s worse.
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May 28th, 2008 at 11:27 am
[...] is a really lame-brained scheme. It reminds me of the McCain-Clinton proposal to cut federal gas taxes during the summer– it’s the wrong solution for our economic woes. Yes, we’re all hurting from gas [...]
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