Imposing a European gas tax in the US

[mom-from-missouri]

And since people are using corn to make fuel to burn instead of gasoline or diesel, corn prices are going up too. To the extent that many farmers around here are planting beans this year because they could not afford the price of the seed corn. Which in turn, can cause a corn shortage, and that will drive the price up further.
Corn prices will run up the price of meats, alternative fuels (some heating and cooking stoves even burn corn pellets), animal feed (even cat and dog food contain corn).....
It is all just a circle

[jmjj215]

Taxes are an inefficiency in an economy and should be lowered.

[jmjj215]

This article is pretty telling.

Granted it's a little old (three years) but the points still stand:

-Personal savings would average $8 billion less per year from 2005 to 2014.
-$82 billion of the $131 billion increase in federal revenues over 10 years would be financed out of foregone or lower personal savings.
-Gross Domestic Product would decline by $6.5 billion per year, in real terms, from 2005 to 2014. In other words, this $131 billion in government revenues would shrink the economy by $65.5 billion.
-There would be, on average, 37,000 fewer job opportunities each year. That works out to one lost job for every $351,000 in new taxes, which is equal to 11 years of work at average yearly wages.[4]
-Total federal revenues would fall short of gas tax proponent’s projections by $3.7 billion.
-Family disposable income would be, on average, $2.5 billion less per year, in real terms. That’s equivalent to the cost of sending 532,600 students to college each year. [5]

[Vapors]

When my son was born I sold my 32 mile per gallon car and bought an 20 mile per gallon SUV. He is a little safer in it if there is an accident with a car and it allows us to pile all our stuff in it for trips. We are driving to Orlando this weekend. There is no way my old car would carry half the stuff nor would it have been as comfortable for everyone.

The minivans I looked at got around the same gas milage and cost more. I would have loved to get that minivan with the sto and go but it was too much.

No one has called me a gas hog yet but I wouldn't care either way. Most of the cars out there don't get much better. We like it for trips. We take 3 vacations a year as we own 3 timeshares.

[poundwise]

What happened to hydrogen? A couple of years ago it was all the rage and is still the cleanest alternative.

The process of creating usable fuel from corn is, at present, horribly inefficient and expensive. When the folks working on the enzymes get it finished, we may be able to have a good bio-fuel substitute for gasoline but, even then, it will not likely be made from corn but from switch-grass or other source.

As for matching the Europeans and Japanese... I'm not sure why we would want to do that on any level, except maybe education. I don't know about you but I don't want, and don't want to put my family on an American freeway in, one of these...

[cicy33]

What happened to hydrogen? A couple of years ago it was all the rage and is still the cleanest alternative.

The process of creating usable fuel from corn is, at present, horribly inefficient and expensive. When the folks working on the enzymes get it finished, we may be able to have a good bio-fuel substitute for gasoline but, even then, it will not likely be made from corn but from switch-grass or other source.

As for matching the Europeans and Japanese... I'm not sure why we would want to do that on any level, except maybe education. I don't know about you but I don't want, and don't want to put my family on an American freeway in, one of these...

Just out pure morbid curiousity exactly how long will you live in that car if you are in an accident? I have a Jeep Grand Cherokee with a tow package that I cannot use personally though my husband can, four kids every weekend and like others I use it for everything. I LOVE my truck. I also know that I have a much better chance of living if I have a wreck in it. My dtrs grandbaby will fit it in it so much easier. I personally don't care if people like my truck or not. I hate minivans, they are difficult for me to drive cuz you can't see all the way around them, for me anyways, not everyone by any means. Now, sure I could get a large 4 door car but they get about the same mileage. And please don't anyone pull did you ask to marry a man with four kids. That to me is the rudest thing to say. All children are blessings. I really don't think what I drive makes the deciding factor in gas prices, for two reasons, one, I think that prices will go up no matter what, they will just find another excuse. Two, I already cut my driving as much as humanly possible, I go to work and we might go somewhere once or twice on the weekend, I live 5 miles from the big town and I live in a small town. I usually spend about $30 per week on gas for my truck. total, work, play everything. I dont' really think that is all that bad. I also don't have to borrow from others when I buy something mildly large.

[cschin4]

Why should someone have to "prove" they need an SUV? Who is going to decide that? Do we need more govt to continually tell us all how to live our lives? My spouse's SUV gets better gas mileage than my minivan which was touted to get 26 mpg but gets a miserable 18 mpg. The REASON we have an energy crisis is not because their is a shortage of oil! They recently had one of the biggest oil finds in decades. The problem lies in administration after administration that did nothing to promote the building of refineries, offshore drilling, etc. Oil is not going to run out any time soon.

[cicy33]

Why should someone have to "prove" they need an SUV? Who is going to decide that? Do we need more govt to continually tell us all how to live our lives? My spouse's SUV gets better gas mileage than my minivan which was touted to get 26 mpg but gets a miserable 18 mpg. The REASON we have an energy crisis is not because their is a shortage of oil! They recently had one of the biggest oil finds in decades. The problem lies in administration after administration that did nothing to promote the building of refineries, offshore drilling, etc. Oil is not going to run out any time soon.

Exactly, and well said! and I didn't mean to prove I needed my SUV, I just made choices when I bought a vehicle.

[DebbieL]

Those cars in the picture are called the SMART car and are a Mercedez-Benz product. We have them all over the place here in BC (I'm on Vancouver Island). The City of Victoria (where I live) has made all sorts of small parking spaces downtown and if anything longer than 3 meters parks in it they get a ticket (basically they are SMART car parking spaces). Supposedly they are very safe vehicles. They use the same frame/cage technology as in race cars. You shouldn't fear driving in them. They wouldn't be practical for anybody who needed more than a two seater, but they are a great little commuter car! They also come in diesel too.

PS - Many companies are using the SMART cars here. The city's meter patrollers also drive them.

[tinapbeana]

re: the smart cars: saw a show where they ran that car into a concrete barrier at 70 MPH, and there was no injury causing intrusion into the passenger cabine.

compare that to a crash we had here: a sherriff's office chevy impala was pulled off on the side of the interstate behind another sherriff's cruiser (a crown vic). the impala got rear-ended at about 50MPH ramming it into the crown vic in front of it. the trunk and the engine of the impala wound up about 3 feet apart in the front seat....

[poundwise]

Those cars in the picture are called the SMART car...

I'm sorry but that is incorrect. Only the first one is of the SMART Car.

The other is a product by Nissan.

My point is that one reason these countries are doing so well in fuel economy is because they drive golf carts.

[cicy33]

WOW that is amazing. That is what would worry me though. So small! But again, as said not feasible for the average family. I bet they are costly too.

[poundwise]

...not feasible for the average family.

Or the man of average height either.

[getforfree]

These cars are too small to fit a family. Only single people would buy it.

[autoxer]

Just think of the possibilities: