Should the US Adopt Gas Taxes as High as Europe?

Shoot all forward thinkers!
Selling less oil is bad for the economy, bad for national security, bad for the American image.
Take over Nigeria Delta after Iraq to feed our V-8s and build stronger borders enforcement.

But seriously, this will promote a lot of innovation, engineering, and build whole new economies. Small cheap cars (from big name makers) in third-world countries have/already get 50+ mpg so I don't see any problems. Being able to take a bus or train to where you need to go isn't bad either.
just my 2 cents.

The difference between Europe and US is that the whole US culture is built on the fundamental assumption that you have a car. In most areas of the US you can't survive without a car. This is not so generally true of Europe.

Having said that, if my salary was to increase sufficiently to cover the extra cost for living and getting to work I wouldn't mind, but of course that won't happen.

I believe the assumption that the tax money will be wisely spent is deeply flawed. We are already paying dearly in many areas without seeing any appreciable gains.

Mass transit is in shambles and always crying broke, health care is hopeless because of the greedy medical industry and student loans? Don't get me started on student loans.
No, all of those areas are like a sinkhole caused by an underground current. Whatever you pour in will line executive pockets and nothing else.
No to high taxes from me.

Higher gas taxes than Europe would be a good start. Road removal projects are also required. - Conversion of cities to auto-free. - Conversion of thoroughfares to bicycle and pedestrian usage. America's rail network is also a century behind Europe. All these measures need to be taken together to catch up to Europe. The first step is impeaching Bush.

This is insane! The issue here are greedy an irresponsible oil monopolies. They reduce output and keep refineries offline in order to boost prices. There is more crude than refined product! Increasing taxes only moves your hard earned money from oil monopolies to another government give-me more. In turn output will be reduced by oil companies to maintan profits that a publicly traded company demands. The net effect is less availability, increased cost, and no movement towards alternate energy. After all who would want it other than consumers? The governmet will be reaping huge profites from the increased taxes and the oil companies will retain profits and reduce costs and output requirments and that will retain the resevers that already exist. They would have even less motivation to invest in refineries and expansion. Do they really believe we fall for all this garbage!

So exactly how much government money comes from gas taxes? How much of those taxes get eaten up by bureaucrats? Raising gas taxes that high will do very little. Particularly since our economy is so heavily tied to the price of fuel. The cost of shipping goods is directly in proportion to the price of gas. There is no place in Europe that is less than a day's drive from a major port. Importation and exportation takes less time, less fuel. In the US, distribution costs increase exponentially because of the need to move goods from coast to coast and into the country's interior. Raising gas taxes will do nothing but increase costs of everything.

Let's get one thing straight, the U.S. was built around the highway. Unlike Europe where the infrastructure was already built before the automobile, needing to drive isn't as necessary as in the U.S.

I lived in Seattle for 5 years and unless you were stinking filthy rich, owning a home close to Seattle was ridiculous. I knew people living 2 hours away to afford a home. Let's see how they adjust to higher gas prices in having to go to work.

And give me a break that the oil companies would accept lower profits. They would just raise the gas price to compensate. If 4 bucks a gallon seems high, I'm sure 6-7 dollar a gallon would be on the horizon for oil companies to make up lost profit.

I already own a Honda Civic. Can't get much more fuel efficient than that without buying a new car. Plus, the Prius or Civic hybrid aren't that much more efficient on real driving conditions. I'd still like to know how the Yaris gets less miles per gallon than the bigger Corolla. Why bother with such a tiny car.

On top of this, my wife works North of where we live and I ended up taking a contract position 160 miles where I commute back and forth once a week as jobs were scarce in my area which would of been 30 miles plus away anyway. So in a week I travel about the same distance.

If I could work within 5 miles from home, I'd travel by bike except on rainy days. If I could commute with my wife, I would. But comparing the US to Europe is comparing apples to oranges.

"America's rail network is also a century behind Europe. All these measures need to be taken together to catch up to Europe."

Once again, someone who fails to realize that in Europe a whole country is the size of one of our smaller states (and the cities are much more densely populated). The BEST we could realistically hope for is bullet trains connecting major cities (and then you walk or take a cab to your destination from there).

I find it funny the way people are putting the entire blame for high prices on oil companies.

Its like placing blame for high diamond prices on your local jewelry store. The cartels who rake in 80% of the profits never get the blame.

The oil companies are a skapegoat for the larger problems, opec and commodities traders. 80 percent of the costs of gas at the pump goes straight to opec.

Then the 40 cents listed above is another 13 percent of the pump costs.

Typically to defend the view point that oil companies are to blame, the media will point to record revenue.

Well if i'm paying 5 dollars for copper now, and charging you 10, but tomorrow i'm paying 10 dollars and charging you 15, I too will have record revenue, but my profit margin will be the same. Revenue has always been a poor measure of a companies status. MCI had Enron had nice revenues too.

You can't look at revenues you have to look at profit margin, because oil in the short term is relativeley inelastic.

Revenue never tells you anything about the cost of doing business
and is only a small part of net income.

Of course tripleing the pre war pricecould have drastic affects especially in the long term.

We have yet to see the longterm affects of the current prices, although I am seeing more and more SUVs at the used car lots.

The government already makes more money off the sale of gasoline, than the oil companies do. Yet they do next to nothing with it. All the extra tax would do, is line the pockets of the polliticans, rather than letting the oil companies do exploration, which is what they use 70% of their profits to do.

Leave the oil industry alone so they can continue to look outside the opec countries for oil, this will ultimately lower prices. Giving money to the government only ensure higher prices.

the US economy is fueled by consumer spending and if MORE money is removed from consumers the economy will slow more / not recover as quickly
and IF the government REALLY wanted better fuel economy they should adopt / allow world wide car standards (Euro / Asian cars)

Housing costs etc...

Hate to tell you but housing costs in europe close to cities, are usually pretty high too. So atleast that part is not apples to oranges.

The arguements that European countries are the size of states, is always a lame excuse for everything that big business wants to gouge us for, or not provide to us.

So do a state wide roll out with a standardized specification. It worked fine in rails years ago, it works fine in europe it can work in the US today.

Bullet trains would be a huge start, but a bigger benefit would be better bus systems, which currently are terrible other than in small pockets like chattanooga TN.

The dense population is another garbage argument, plenty of places in europe are not densely populate, and yet busses still run there.

No one says it can be done everywhere, but atleast do it somewhere.

Raise taxes on gas? The government already hideously overspends every penny it takes in in revenue. On top of that, it spends them in the wrong places; outside of national defense, pork projects get the largest increases in spending. There is no way the government would spend the extra money on education, health benefits, or mass transit - it would go to fund projects like the $320 million "Bridge to Nowhere" (which was, thankfully, removed from the budget; but the fact that it was proposed and initially was placed on the congressional budget is telling in and of itself).

We need less government intervention/interaction in the economy, not more. The high gas prices we are currently experiencing will in and of themselves bring about changes in consumer habits. These changes come slowly though, especially in the automotive markets, where the re-buy cycle is several years on average. Alternatives to private transportation are poor or non-existent in most of the country; building a public transportation network that could support the population would be tremendously expensive, with perpetual upkeep costs that are also extraordinarily high.

Part of the reason that Europeans can rely on public transportation for most, if not all, of their needs is that Europeans are, on average, less mobile than Americans. Populations are also more concentrated in cities in Europe than in the United States. This is mainly because, after WWII, the only affordable transportation was public transportation - so people lived within the bounds of public transit. Since then, public transit has continued to be accepted as the norm. In the United States, cars were cheap. They gave individuals freedom of movement at all times and to all places - so the car became the preferred means of transit; and using public transportation became a social stigma, associated with being poor. Now, Americans live spread out, in a manner incompatible with efficient public transportation, while Europeans live more densely packed communities, which are easily served by public transit.

oh Yea,

Send a giant gas guzzling buss 20 plus miles off route to pick up one person. Not to mention the 3/4 to 1 hour time wasted for the other 20 passengers. Now that's big government efficiency at its best. A Lame excuse? I don’t think so! Oh well, I suppose we could spend a few hundred mil build a high speed rail to pick that person up instead – even better.
Comparing oil monopolies to a local retailer is not exactly what I would call a parallel. Possibly comparing oil to the DeBeers diamond mines – that would make more sense.
They own most of the mines in the world. I can really see them letting the diamond d price collapse if they had or hit a huge strike.

Unjustly scape-goating oil companies? Hah ….

The price of crude is done from its high yet fuel oil in the country is at its peak. I don’t think the crude cost explains that reality.

oh Yea,

Send a giant gas guzzling buss 20 plus miles off route to pick up one person. Not to mention the 3/4 to 1 hour time wasted for the other 20 passengers. Now that's big government efficiency at its best. A Lame excuse? I don’t think so! Oh well, I suppose we could spend a few hundred mil build a high speed rail to pick that person up instead – even better.
Comparing oil monopolies to a local retailer is not exactly what I would call a parallel. Possibly comparing oil to the DeBeers diamond mines – that would make more sense.
They own most of the mines in the world. I can really see them letting the diamond d price collapse if they had or hit a huge strike.

Unjustly scape-goating oil companies? Hah ….

The price of crude is down from its high yet fuel oil in the country is at its peak. I don’t think the crude cost explains that reality.

oh Yea,

Send a giant gas guzzling buss 20 plus miles off route to pick up one person. Not to mention the 3/4 to 1 hour time wasted for the other 20 passengers. Now that's big government efficiency at its best. A Lame excuse? I don’t think so! Oh well, I suppose we could spend a few hundred mil build a high speed rail to pick that person up instead – even better.
Comparing oil monopolies to a local retailer is not exactly what I would call a parallel. Possibly comparing oil to the DeBeers diamond mines – that would make more sense.
They own most of the mines in the world. I can really see them letting the diamond d price collapse if they had or hit a huge strike.

Unjustly scape-goating oil companies? Hah ….

The price of crude is down from its high yet fuel oil in the country is at its peak. I don’t think the crude cost explains that reality.

"So do a state wide roll out with a standardized specification. It worked fine in rails years ago, it works fine in europe it can work in the US today."

It's not about standards, it's about SIZE. Do you know how ungodly expensive it would be to cover this country in railroads like Europe is?

"The dense population is another garbage argument, plenty of places in europe are not densely populate, and yet busses still run there."

No, it's not because when things are more densely packed people can walk to grocery stores and work and fewer trains / buses are needed to carry the same number of passengers.

"The arguements that European countries are the size of states, is always a lame excuse for everything that big business wants to gouge us for, or not provide to us.

So do a state wide roll out with a standardized specification. It worked fine in rails years ago, it works fine in europe it can work in the US today."

It's not about standards, it's about SIZE. Do you realize how ungodly expensive it would be to cover this country in railroads like European countries are? Also, I live in Ohio - roughly the same size as Germany which has about 8 times the population of Ohio. Now, that's a lot less empty land for trains to go through and more people riding any given train (and able to walk to work / the store). Despite what your incompetence say, population density DOES matter when it comes to public transportation. That's why so many more people use public transportation in high density cities in the US.

I live outside the US. The price of fuel in the US appears very cheap compared to most developed countries. However taxing fuel is likely not the best approach to reducing fuel consumption and emissions in the US.

I am certain that raising taxes on fuel will not reduce the amount of margin going to the oil companies, nor will it lead to any measurable improvement in other infrastructure to reduce the dependence on the automobile. I would be very surprised if there was any government that in reality put as much money back into roads, public transport and infrastructure development as it takes. The huge amount of cash raised by such a tax would be a very tempting windfall for any government, and we would find that most of the money would go on projects with some 'political' benefit rather than for the greater good.

The harsh reality is that governments around the world have to set strict fuel efficiency standards for new cars, and eliminate loopholes that allow SUV's and other vehicals to get around fuel efficiency standards. Setting a goal of 35mpg by 2020 is quite pathetic; George needs to stand up and make some of those hard decisions. It should be 35mpg by next year.

I realise that such a move would be unpopular with the campaign donator's, but the republicans are going to loose the Whitehouse anyway. Here is an opportunity for George to be remembered for doing something good and extra-ordinary.

DeBeers is a worse comparison than the local retails, the oil companies don't own the oil fields, the governments do. Opec controls 50% and would be much closer to DeBeers.

Busses don't typically take passengers 20 miles out of the way . The only people traveling the 20 miles would be the driver and those who needed to go in that direction.

I'd take the 3-5 extra people along a 20 mile route, using a 10-13mpg bus than those same 3-5 people driving a combined 40 miles using suvs or trucks that get 13-19mpg.

Again no one says that buses have to run out to the dirt roads.

I live in a town within 20 miles of one of the top 20 largest cities in this country and there is no masstransit. I've lived in suburbs of cities in europe, and the masstransit there did go even 50 miles outside the city, to rural areas much less densley populated than the town i'm in now. And the bus would stop in multiple places withing those towns...

Sure when you look at the us as a whole we're spread out, especially in the midwest. But when you get to the major cities the density is no different than european cities, yet masstransit systems are barely adequate

Trains could also be a real contender to airplanes which are much less fuel efficient, and yet our rail systems haven't been very heavily invested in since the civil war.

Ultimately the oil companies respond to supply and demand just as any other company would. The between oil and other products, is that oil is inelastic in the short term. So the market takes a while to adjust to higher prices. Ultimately Cars will become more efficient, or oil prices will go down. In an industry where the budget of building a new oil well can cost north of 5 billion a month, you can hardly fault them for putting money in their coffers when they can. Ultimatley the Margins are the same as they were in the 90s.

If we can only raise taxes as high as Europe. Gee what forward thinking. If we can only have 12% unemployment like the French. 4% unemployment is way too LOW for us Americans we need a recession.

Seriously folks. By using the authors socialist logic we can conclude that if we raise gas taxes an infinite amount then we can have an infinite amount of money for the social welfare state. Workers of the World Unite !

I would rather my money go to an oil company where it will eventually go to its shareholders (people like me), rather than the socialists in Washington where it will be wasted.

More gas taxes? Are politicians insane? Don't answer that question. Most politicians are insane and totally disconnected with reality. If you set gas taxes as high as they are in Europe, you'll practically kill the economy. A better solution would be finding ways to become less dependent on foreign oil. We have the technology to build safe nuclear powerplants, but the tree huggers won't let that happen.

Higher taxation on gasoline should really be considered as a last resort. However unless the citizens aren´t up for making hard decision for a long term perspective this is a must.
In Sweden we probably have the highest gasonline tax in the world, or atleast a top3.
Nobody is really happy about it, however it does inspire people to be more efficient in the use of energy.
People do buy cars that have a high mpg, and we have incentives on all forms of non co2 polluting propultions.
These cars have goverment cashback offers, free parking in city centers, road tax absolution etc.
This helps alot in the end, but not to forget it took us a while and as many have stated, the US is not europe.
The population of the US has a total diffrent mentality regarding gasoline and cars in general.
However we are probably 20-30 years ahead of you in environmental development, and atleast 15 years ahead of the rest of the EU countries.
Our public transportation is state of the art. Busses are run on biogas produced locally, from garbage or methane from human faeces. We are in the forefront of developing ethanol from spruce forest, which will when fully operational make fuel production local, ecologic (since the fuel is from a renewable source that consumes co2) Not only does this create local jobs to lower unemployement it also makes the dependence on Oil alot lower.
And it will also have a huge economical gain since less money will be spent on import of gasoline.
I think everyone can see the nationwide economical impact from this.
Ethanol is however not really a "clean" energy!
I still think its going to take atleast 10 more years of climat change, hurricanes and drastic temperature changes before the US starts changing. And even after that, the 3rd world will have taken over our fuel addiction and the western eyes will be turned on China, India etc.
One thing is certain, Im not gonna be buying beach front property near the equator, thats for sure.
The world won´t be a good place to live in 20 years from now.
The western world stopped killing each other over religion a long time ago, so hopefully the 3rd world (muslims) will catch up in 50 years or so and reach the same enlightened level as we are in now.
So atleast we won´t get blown up when we are old and grumpy :)

O&O

All I can say is I wish for the "good old days". I pity the teens of today, they'll never know how great america WAS !!!

Problem with any comparison with Europe is most towns in Europe were founded 200-800 years ago when horses were the main mode of transport and a town with a population of 100,000 is only 3 miles from one side to the other. Public transport works better in densely populated towns and in Europe poplation density in towns is much higher than in North America. While both have rurual areas there are states in North America that are larger than whole countries in Europe and much larger areas fo very low population density. Roads are also narrower for the same reason - horse don't take up as much space as 50 ft tractor-trailers. Towns and cities in North America are much more spread out and consequently in most places you need a car (its not an option) so raising gas prices will not reduce the amount people use their cars for commuting or shopping - they just end up spending more money on gasoline. Other issue of gas prices trebled tomorrow - we can't instantly trade in our cars for 50 mpg fuel misers. Raising taxes is not the solution - governments in general never spend our money as wisely as we spend it ourselves - rather simply legislate change for new vehicles - 35 mpg minimum and offer tax rebates on more fuel efficient vehicles and/or big initial purchase tax penalties on inefficient vehicles. People think more about what they spend on a vehicle to buy it than how much gasoline it will consume per year.

Problem with any comparison with Europe is most towns in Europe were founded 200-800 years ago when horses were the main mode of transport and a town with a population of 100,000 is only 3 miles from one side to the other. Public transport works better in densely populated towns and in Europe poplation density in towns is much higher than in North America. While both have rurual areas there are states in North America that are larger than whole countries in Europe and much larger areas fo very low population density. Roads are also narrower for the same reason - horse don't take up as much space as 50 ft tractor-trailers. Towns and cities in North America are much more spread out and consequently in most places you need a car (its not an option) so raising gas prices will not reduce the amount people use their cars for commuting or shopping - they just end up spending more money on gasoline. Other issue of gas prices trebled tomorrow - we can't instantly trade in our cars for 50 mpg fuel misers. Raising taxes is not the solution - governments in general never spend our money as wisely as we spend it ourselves - rather simply legislate change for new vehicles - 35 mpg minimum and offer tax rebates on more fuel efficient vehicles and/or big initial purchase tax penalties on inefficient vehicles. People think more about what they spend on a vehicle to buy it than how much gasoline it will consume per year.

Problem with any comparison with Europe is most towns in Europe were founded 200-800 years ago when horses were the main mode of transport and a town with a population of 100,000 is only 3 miles from one side to the other. Public transport works better in densely populated towns and in Europe poplation density in towns is much higher than in North America. While both have rurual areas there are states in North America that are larger than whole countries in Europe and much larger areas fo very low population density. Roads are also narrower for the same reason - horse don't take up as much space as 50 ft tractor-trailers. Towns and cities in North America are much more spread out and consequently in most places you need a car (its not an option) so raising gas prices will not reduce the amount people use their cars for commuting or shopping - they just end up spending more money on gasoline. Other issue of gas prices trebled tomorrow - we can't instantly trade in our cars for 50 mpg fuel misers. Raising taxes is not the solution - governments in general never spend our money as wisely as we spend it ourselves - rather simply legislate change for new vehicles - 35 mpg minimum and offer tax rebates on more fuel efficient vehicles and/or big initial purchase tax penalties on inefficient vehicles. People think more about what they spend on a vehicle to buy it than how much gasoline it will consume per year.

I see,
Your personal perspective is to make the U.S. like Europe. No thanks! That statement is not intended to be derogatory to Europeans. In America, I for one, like a bit of freedom. I know the policies of our elites are not always appreciated there. Believe me they aren’t here either. Please understand they do not represent the American people. The citizens are still what they used to be and always will be. Please read the U.S. constitution, especially the bill of rights (the first 10) for some insight as to what that is. What you read will be the heart of America. It’s not what the world currently sees. Most of us still take out roots to heart, even if our recent leadership does not. Independence and street corners without a security camera looking over our shoulder are a prized commodity. Privacy still mater her, and the individual still count. That could end soon if we are not watchful and defensive of our beliefs. We know freedom is protected and obtained by the masses, not by government control and there ‘It’s for your safety ‘story line’. Many here don’t feel, or even appreciate, government dependence for every little thing. We came to America and began a new country for the sake of freedom and basic human rights. That is something many will not relinquish here. Its possible Europe doesn’t share the same views but that’s an individual thing, both in terms of preference and what one is willing to defend and sacrifice to protect it. In part that is why our view differs from some.

The law is 7.2% mark-up min. Its the government that screws us you morons.

BS, any extra tax money raised will go right into a raise for politicians and other crap that the American taxpayers will never see.

I don't understand why everyone wants to adopt european life. They live the ways they do and we live the ways we do. Simple as that. Why would we want the government to get more taxes from us. They always mess this kinda stuff up. Plus it hurts everyone. Gas prices don't only effect us at the pump. They effect us when we want to travel. Lots of people don't think outside the box. It makes it more expensive to heat our houses etc. Everything goes up. Except our wages. So no we have to keep the price as low as possible. Plus why should the use less gas movement crap be fueled by a bunch of people finding the cheapest way to live...how about fueling it by concerns for our planets well being and the moral aspect behind it.

This tax issue will never happen as long as there are republicans in house and thank god for that! as much as i don;t want to say that...i am from canada also....

Well you know "regulation by taxation" is not illegal in the US or anything. Oh thats right the part of the law that made the US great and served the people has been "interpreted" by the latest judicial or executive dictator. Time to hit the reset button folks; get outta your comfort zone ..

The reason we can't drive motorbikes here in the US is the average vehicle around us weighs 6000 pounds and on top of that only about 3% of vehicle operators can actually drive without running over someone or something.

Actually I think gasoline, mortgages, and health insurance should be provided without cost to us by the federal reserve system. After all we have the global economy by the balls; why does congress get to have all the fun. Oh yea ANWR how do you like me now!

BS BS BS BS BS BS BS BS BS BS BS BS BS and some more BS, Any extra money has already been spent fifty years ago .. You just think republicans are conservative and fundamental law still exists.

It seems many of us are of the same opinion. We need to suport one another to retain our strength and unity rather that work against each other.

Why does everyone keep talking about the "bureaucrats" spending all the money? What do they think these people are going to do with the tax dollars, buy their spouses fur coats/rolexes? (Like they don't already do that...) The amount of money we are talking about ($1-$2 gas tax) would be staggering, certainly tempting, and some would be wasted, but most would do what it was for, just like it does now, go to roads, mass transit, etc. What one person calls "pork" on a bill, another calls money spent in their district, jobs created. Sure it's a crooked system but the fat cats aren't going to take your tax dollars and light a bonfire with them. Ok, maybe a few bonfires. It's like when they talk about cost overruns, the media always makes it sound like the money just disappeared. Show me a cost overrun, I'll show you an infusion of cash into the economy. I'm no economist (can you tell) but to me, tax money can go into a loop, out of your pocket, into someone else's pocket, maybe back into yours.
One final note: Bureaucrats are people, sure they want a raise, maybe they don't deserve it, but where does that raise go? A new pool (lots of good paying jobs laying concrete, tile, landscaping), new car, new house. I'd rather the money be taken by my government than by the Saudi government, the Iranian government, the Venezuelan government.

Right now it is the oil companies at fault. Crude prices are $15-18 lower a barrel than last year but prices are over a dollar more a gallon. Sure there were a few supply worries recently but they were resolved.

The current prices are entirely the oil companies doing. They know that this time of the year is when people are driving more as kids are out of school and people are looking to go on vacation. What do they do? They take factories offline supposedly for maintenance that could have been done at other points in the year. And then they claim theres "difficulties" bringing them back online.

They only care about their profits. Pure and simple. I drive a Cobalt SS 2.4L and average 28 mpg with mixed city and highway driving. It's ridiculous that a small car like mine now costs $35 to fill up. In February regular in my area was at $1.89-1.99 a gallon. Now its $2.95 or higher. Nothing drastic has happened to the supply of oil from our different sources to justify such price increases.

And as far as giving money to foreign governments. One thing you can do is not buy Citgo. They're owned by Venezuela so all their profits go into the pockets of Hugo Chavez who has known ties to several terrorist groups. Not to mention places like BP, Texaco, Sunoco, and Exxon/Mobil have better gas.

1988 "Read my lips. No new taxes" - George H.W. Bush"
1990 - Taxes raised. Your wallet gets thinner.
1992 - Bush 41 fired from his job by the American people.
Will history repeat itself??
Moral of the story... don't trust a bureaucrat

1. All presidents and goverment leaders raise taxes.
2. Oil/Gas companies are RAKING the US over the coals. They are pocketing Trillions of dollars and acting like they don't have a cent to live on. Our prices go up at the whim of greedy board members, not based on production rates, etc. Example: Price of gas in Ohio is lower in the mid-day, but 15-25cents higher in the morning and evening. Holiday/Summer prices jump and then only drop back a bit afterwards (not back to "normal" as would be expected).
3. Oil/Gas companies (most) are hindering and directly undermining research into alternative fuels. Makes sense from their standpoint, they want to stay world powers.
4. Central Ohio is now paying $3.50/gal for the cheap stuff!!!!
5. A consortium of governments should regulate the price, not the monopoly of a few billionaires who are accountable to no one but the people expecting to make money off other people's work.
6. More important than anything else: Gasoline/Petrol consumers are powerless to stop prices from going higher. We'll have to pay whatever rates the gas companies set.

Be like Europe? No thanks. Move closer to city centers? No thanks. What is that anyway, an attempt at "re-wilding" that some left wing radicals want?

Does anyone seriously believe that they can justify higher taxes by stating that they are for our own good? Higher gas taxes are simply another attempt at socialist income redistribution, to which Americans should ignore any and all attempts to accomplish.

To the liberals I say "Nice Try!".

Liberalism truly is a mental illness. I swear.

Let’s shine a little light on the ignorance exhibited by some in this forum,

1. The USA is second to no country on earth in any social, economic or ideological benchmark.
2. Why do you think the cost of gasoline is so high? Its taxes stupid! ~75% of retail cost.
3. Why do you think Euro economies and citizen mindsets are so weak? High energy costs and regressive communist style tax schemes that provide disincentives to hard work.

This notion that we can take a page from Europe’s playbook is complete nonsense. When the day comes , if ever, that the Euros are feeding the world, providing world security, inventing everything, taking all the risks, exporting freedom and liberty, and working half as hard as we Americans do, then we can perhaps learn something from them.

America is the greatest, most free, smartest, most energetic and of course richest country on Gods Green Earth precisely because we are the antithesis of Europe.

Stick that in your hash pipe and smoke it.

Remeber, Europe has an advance systme of public transportation, which allows them to not to use a car. In US, 70% of cities have a weak public transportation. ou cannnot compare US and Europe in this matter.

I agree with Mike. Why would want to give the Gov't MORE of my money when they are already good at wasting what I do give them? I'm all for wanting decent fuel efficient cars (the Toyota Camry Hybrid comes to mind) but how are you going to get a mass transit system out in the country? I live in a town with a population of 6500, but I work in a town 16 miles away that has a population of 12000. There are thousands of towns like this all over the the U.S. The reason Europe can get away with having mass transit everywhere is because the entire continent is about the same size in land area as the U.S. Most Euro countries are the size of an average U.S. state. Plus I like the freedom to where I want, WHEN I WANT, without having to wait for the next train or cab.

Everybody is blaming everybody but themselves. Most of the problems we face in the world can be traced back to our own behaviour. After all we are adults. We wouldn't let our children get away with blaming someone else for their own destructive behaviour.
The first oil shocks we're in 1973 and now 34 years later we are still driving Suburbans and blaming oil companies.
Further last year we subsidized the oil industry to the tune of over $10,000,000,000.
We should had spent the same amount of money on solar technologies or biomas conversion or, God forbid, conservation. Where would we be today if we had done that every year for the last thirty years. Certainly not in the middle east and not blaming others for this particular problem.
Based on today's state of affairs I would have to say we have a pretty dysfunctional electorate.

so, in Europe we live in small cities, where we can walk to go to work.
people do not want cars even if it is raining, and living in front of your work is very cheap.
Trains are fantastic, as well as buses.
Somebody commented above that we are used to such things since WWII and didn't change. ¿?? pff. it's been ages here.
Have you ever been in Europe?
I do not know which Europe are you talking about.
In Holland, people are more environmentally concerned, they have their own way of life and almost everybody has a bike, which they use frequently.
In the rest of Europe this doesn't happen.
Traffic jams are the norm, either in a big or a small city.
Public service is more or less effective, mainly in the north countries.
However, in most homes there is more than one car for each family, almost one car for family member.
And yes, in Europe is also cheaper to live far from the city centres.

The difference is that europeans are more concerned about energy efficient cars because of the fuel prices. And I'm not only talking about hybrids. European car manufacturers had always being more concerned than american ones about the fuel consumption of its vehicles, making them much more fuel efficient.

P.D: I am European. I use the car for every movement. I wish I walked more as a healthy habit.
I don't think that Americans need more to use the car than Europeans.

Simply, europeans need to spend a bigger part of our income in fuel, so we try to make less use of the car.
It's not because we do not need it.

I live in Europe and for the most part the local public transportation is exactly the same as it was in the US. You do have more local trains but they only come by once an hour in each direction, more often in morning and at night. To get to the train stations you drive, walk or take the bus.
Where they do save some is that you really don't have school buses, most kids use the public transportation to get to/from school, or like my neighbors since they have a child in Kindergarden and 1st grade they are required to pick up the kid from kindergarten and the other kid walks the blocks.
Major cities are the same as in the US with buses, metros, trollies and/or combination of the two.

Where you do see more mass public transportation here in Europe is for longer distances. Most of this is in the form of trains as opposed to the US where it is buses. If you want to complain about the lack of mass public transportation in the US Greyhound is around and can take you to most places in the Continental US.

As for the high prices of gas here, you just suck it up, along with the 19% VAT aka sales tax. If you have the money you just purchase it along with the big cars that are common here, Mercedes, BMWs,etc if you don't you factor in the extra hours you have to pay to wait in line at the bus and train stations and the extra money you have to pay since you have to shop at the in-town grocery store since you cannot easily get to the cheaper stores on the outskirts of town.

The real issue here is a lack of public transportation. It's not just the scale of the US vs Europe or the convenience of being able to go wherever you want whenever you want, it's the fact that all public transportation in this country is close to worthless when compared to any other civilized country. In Europe you can set your watch by the train. Here you're lucky if you can set your calendar by it. Add to that the faster pace of society in the US and it's impossible to conceive of any alternative to having your own car.

The government also screws us over with taxes without giving anything back, the oil cartels and companies screw us over by hindering research into alternative fuels and raising prices at every opportunity, but it's not like any of us are willing to take a stand against it. In today's world money talks and we're all too eager to make statements like "I'm an American I deserve cheap gas!" and buy SUVs and become bitter. The consumer conspires against the consumer as much as any big corporation. Go out of your way to screw over big corporations and maybe, just maybe, something will change. Buy a more efficient car on principle, forget about the cost. You're fighting the oil cartels. Walk or bike when you can manage it. Carpool if you can. To you it may be an inconvenience and you may think it doesn't do anything, but even if we use 10% less gas that's a 10% decrease in sales and that sends a message.

America needs two things, JOBS and A WAR IT CAN WIN !!!

"Kerry Donnelly:
Let’s shine a little light on the ignorance exhibited by some in this forum,

1. The USA is second to no country on earth in any social, economic or ideological benchmark.
2. Why do you think the cost of gasoline is so high? Its taxes stupid! ~75% of retail cost.
3. Why do you think Euro economies and citizen mindsets are so weak? High energy costs and regressive communist style tax schemes that provide disincentives to hard work.

This notion that we can take a page from Europe’s playbook is complete nonsense. When the day comes , if ever, that the Euros are feeding the world, providing world security, inventing everything, taking all the risks, exporting freedom and liberty, and working half as hard as we Americans do, then we can perhaps learn something from them.

America is the greatest, most free, smartest, most energetic and of course richest country on Gods Green Earth precisely because we are the antithesis of Europe.

Stick that in your hash pipe and smoke it."

My god, I did not know that there still were such uneducated people in the western world.
My advice to you is, sell your 4x4 truck (with or without the shotgun) Buy some airline tickets and visit the world.
You might find your paradise is not that great compared to the rest of the world.
You can shuv your export of freedom and liberty trash talk to some third world country, we are more then fine here and have been without your "interventions" for as long as our country has existed.
You are so behind on any level of evolution compared to Sweden that your post is borderline hilarious.
Try looking up some statistic before making extreme claims that your way of life, and the US policies are the correct ones.
But thats the problem with your country and your mentality, and nothing I say will change your mind and thats why your going to continue and f***** up this world.
And by the looks of the rest of the posts here, nobody is debating the real issues here, it always comes down to the $.
If you are supposed to be the country the rest of the world looks up to, then start acting accordingly.
The present US seems more like a high school bully, grow up and take some responsebilities.
If not for the environment then atleast to stop the huge amounts of money beeing harvested by the middle east.
But obviously their "political campaign contributions" will stop any form of change, so you might want to look over your "free" and "democratic" political systems aswell while your at it.

It is pretty amazing that so many people spew that claptrap without thinking. "To hell with the facts full speed ahead, I know what I think. If you don't agree then you're evil"
Terry, the truth is that we aren't ahead in lots of the things you're talking about. Just saying all that stuff doesn't make it true. Compared to the industrialized world we lag behind in lots of key areas. Primarily education and health care. We may have the largest economy for a single nation but compared to the European Union no.
By the way Euros are not weak they are not the ones bogged down with a bloated foreign debt. As for hard working, we have a TRILLION DOLLAR trade deficit with China. The truth is that we are more like a third world debtor nation now than ever before. The Saudi royal family alone owns more than a seventh of the entire US economy. Gee I wonder where they got all that money? Oil perhaps. Who bought it from them? Every single one of us did. No one held a gun to our heads and made us either.
A tax on consumption wouldn't be so bad if every penny went to weaning us off the oil tit.

NNDD,

Thank you for illustrating my point for me.

NNDD

Finally somebody else besides me is saying something about this.

Kerry Donnelly is a good example of the reason why america is slowly decaying. Too many old world dinosaurs who never get out in the world and having more wasted ignorant pride vs intelligence and education. They act like they know everything about other cultures or countries but only hear about it on the TV which is severely conditioned and misguided. Oh by the way just traveling to another country and staying in a fancy hotel for a few days does not count either.

I too am an American but has been woken up from the old world western thinking by actually working and living in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for 2 years encouraged by my very close friend who was born there. Even though it is a developing country their technology makes the technology in the US look like they are still in the 80's or even 70's. I absolutely miss and loved working there. I woke up every morning feeling happy to be alive and with a smile on my face. I cant really explain the happiness except of imagine the feeling of being at complete and total peace with yourself and everyone around you, not having anything to worry about weather finances, work, or people you commonly associate with. I even love finally seeing a much better choice of cars rather than being bullied by the big 3 with monster gas hogs. I saw many performance cars based on the same scale of a civic or a mitsubishi lancer but performing like a mustang. In case you are wondering what vehicle I owned in Malaysia, i had a turbo Mitsubishi Triton.

Anything in the field of electronics or computers i could purchase almost anywhere. I even seen fascinating computer and electronic technology that is months old there that has not even made its way here yet. Also when i needed a part for a computer, on my car, or anything i just walk down to this mile long street packed with IT and electronic gadget stores and buy what i need. I had absolutely no need or use for ordering parts from the internet ever.

As much as i hate to say being back in america almost feels like going back to a farm way out in the country after coming back from a big city. I guess it's back to ebay and other internet sites for ordering more gadget gear or parts and putting up with the feeling of being beat up everyday i come from work. Oh yeah and more negative politics of people sucking dry every penny from the typical hard worker.

Sighhhh

NNDD

Finally somebody else besides me is saying something about this.

Kerry Donnelly is a good example of the reason why america is slowly decaying. Too many old world dinosaurs who never get out in the world and having more wasted ignorant pride vs intelligence and education. They act like they know everything about other cultures or countries but only hear about it on the TV which is severely conditioned and misguided. Oh by the way just traveling to another country and staying in a fancy hotel for a few days does not count either.

I too am an American but has been woken up from the old world western thinking by actually working and living in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for 2 years encouraged by my very close friend who was born there. Even though it is a developing country their technology makes the technology in the US look like they are still in the 80's or even 70's. I absolutely miss and loved working there. I woke up every morning feeling happy to be alive and with a smile on my face. I cant really explain the happiness except of imagine the feeling of being at complete and total peace with yourself and everyone around you, not having anything to worry about weather finances, work, or people you commonly associate with. I even love finally seeing a much better choice of cars rather than being bullied by the big 3 with monster gas hogs. I saw many performance cars based on the same scale of a civic or a mitsubishi lancer but performing like a mustang. In case you are wondering what vehicle I owned in Malaysia, i had a turbo Mitsubishi Triton.

Anything in the field of electronics or computers i could purchase almost anywhere. I even seen fascinating computer and electronic technology that is months old there that has not even made its way here yet. Also when i needed a part for a computer, on my car, or anything i just walk down to this mile long street packed with IT and electronic gadget stores and buy what i need. I had absolutely no need or use for ordering parts from the internet ever.

As much as i hate to say being back in america almost feels like going back to a farm way out in the country after coming back from a big city. I guess it's back to ebay and other internet sites for ordering more gadget gear or parts and putting up with the feeling of being beat up everyday i come from work. Oh yeah and more negative politics of people sucking dry every penny from the typical hard worker.

Sighhhh

NNDD

Finally somebody else besides me is saying something about this.

Kerry Donnelly is a good example of the reason why america is slowly decaying. Too many old world dinosaurs who never get out in the world and having more wasted ignorant pride vs intelligence and education. They act like they know everything about other cultures or countries but only hear about it on the TV which is severely conditioned and misguided. Oh by the way just traveling to another country and staying in a fancy hotel for a few days does not count either.

I too am an American but has been woken up from the old world western thinking by actually working and living in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for 2 years encouraged by my very close friend who was born there. Even though it is a developing country their technology makes the technology in the US look like they are still in the 80's or even 70's. I absolutely miss and loved working there. I woke up every morning feeling happy to be alive and with a smile on my face. I cant really explain the happiness except of imagine the feeling of being at complete and total peace with yourself and everyone around you, not having anything to worry about weather finances, work, or people you commonly associate with. I even love finally seeing a much better choice of cars rather than being bullied by the big 3 with monster gas hogs. I saw many performance cars based on the same scale of a civic or a mitsubishi lancer but performing like a mustang. In case you are wondering what vehicle I owned in Malaysia, i had a turbo Mitsubishi Triton.

Anything in the field of electronics or computers i could purchase almost anywhere. I even seen fascinating computer and electronic technology that is months old there that has not even made its way here yet. Also when i needed a part for a computer, on my car, or anything i just walk down to this mile long street packed with IT and electronic gadget stores and buy what i need. I had absolutely no need or use for ordering parts from the internet ever.

As much as i hate to say being back in america almost feels like going back to a farm way out in the country after coming back from a big city. I guess it's back to ebay and other internet sites for ordering more gadget gear or parts and putting up with the feeling of being beat up everyday i come from work. Oh yeah and more negative politics of people sucking dry every penny from the typical hard worker.

Sighhhh

This is another wacky job of a wacky writer. Probably a loser living in a shared apartment with no ability to own anything what so ever! Why copy from the loser European countries? Look at their failing ecomonics and social moral! Please don't try to drag our beloved America into the sink-hole like Europe.

To fix our problem, first, kick those people like Ted Kennedy, John Edwards, Nacy Polosi. etc. out of the office. Stop giving Al Gore any free publicity and expose his "carbon footprint" company. Stop enriching the environmentalist wackos in Hollywood like Sheryl Crow, Sean Penn by boycoting their movies, CD albums, etc.
Second, deregulate all the nonsense, suicidal environmental laws that have been implemented during the last 20 years or so. Let drill for oil and gas, and build new refineries again. Also, build new power plants using our clean and safe nuclear power technology. I guarantee you, the gas price will drop like a rock. America will be back in Her glory days again!

You worry about global warming? It has been warming for so many million years now (not what Al Gore was trying to tell us in his stupid, non-educated movie). If the earth is not as warm as it is today, it probably is roamed by the mammoths by now. You worry about clean air? Buy those Honda cars made in Ohio! Hell, it's okay to buy those CDI diesel cars to burn up the used oil from McDonalds, too!

My friends, I love this country. I hope we will not become the socialist/communist state like the European!

Yes, raise the tax. People will be buying cars with better gas mileage, then the price of the guzzlers will fall. That way I can pick up a nice truck for cheap. Have you seen the amount of new trucks sitting on the lots?

And by the way, I'll be buying a small car too. But this will allow me to get the nice truck as well. Its a win win situation.

"Kerry Donnelly:
NNDD,

Thank you for illustrating my point for me."

Whatever floates your boat skipper, I get my knowledge from facts and not fiction.
Your like a supporter rooting for a team thats loosing cause they were once great and mighty.
Yes you have one of the largest economy(and yes the EU beats you) and yes you have the most advanced military, but then what? Are the rest of us supposed to go "Im so scared" so you can rant on about how fantastic the US is and how your the best at everything?
I´ve been to the US many times and I like the country alot, but Im sorry to say its not the center of the universe and its not paradise.
Your claims are faulty and you don´t have any stats or hard facts to back them up.
But by all means keep living the dream lets hope your gonna wake up and face reality before its to late.

Taxes should be raised on gasoline. These taxes could just be pumped straight into income tax reductions giving the consumer an average net loss of $0. The only effect this would have would be to drive (no pun intended) people to buy more efficient cars.

I read that the house just passed ten years in jail for selling gas. Close the refineries and let the gas be produced in bathtub labs. Drug dealers can sell it by the gram. All we need now is a radical increase in food cost to reduce the excess population.

I think people should be able to buy whatever car/truck/tank they wish, and I find the whole premise of CAFE ridiculous. I also think the retail price of gasoline should be much higher, for a variety of reasons.

Then all the cajoling for people to drive something smaller goes away. Motorists would "pay to play" since anyone that wanted to burn a lot of gasoline for whatever reason - driving an SUV to run errands, driving a Maybach to run errands, or some other permutation, would be paying a lot of money to exercise that sort of desire. And we would never have to discuss CAFE again.

Because, frankly, if gasoline was a sustained $5 or $6 a gallon, the demarcation between needs and wants regarding what people drive would become a lot more pronounced. Only families with 5 kids that lived on a mountain that got a lot of snow would decide they needed a 7-passenger AWD SUV to get around in, for the most part. Sure, there would be exceptions - people who could afford the gasoline and got a kick out of driving something big around, but not too many. Most people would not get enough pleasure from driving something that got 10-12 MPG to justify the cost of the gasoline. Purchasers of such vehicles would be confined to people that just couldn't make a smaller vehicle that got better gas mileage work for them because of their particular (real) needs.

Gasoline is cheap in the U.S., and until it is more expensive, there will be no migration towards highly fuel-efficient vehicles. Most Americans do not respond to efforts to save gasoline for the good of the planet, they don't respond to efforts to induce guilt, if they're not forced to buy the cars made as a result of CAFE, then they won't, they don't respond to societal pressure, they're not conservationists, and national security is an issue to them, but one they can usually only think of in tangible, military actions. It's tough for many of them to connect the dots - paying money to people that have oil, who in turn give the money to people who want to kill us; that really doesn't register with a lot of people as something we should minimize. Particularly when they want gasoline for their vehicles. So, none of those things are going to make Americans use less gasoline.

But Americans do react to economic forces, and fairly quickly. A large increase in the retail price of gas, implemented over a few years, would get everyone moving towards the same goal of reducing gasoline consumption. You could make it tax-neutral overall by reducing the federal income tax rate a small amount.

And then we could get focused on all of the other things that use petroleum-based fuel and put out pollutants - it's a long list, and it is the lion's share of our problems in this area, but at least we'd have the part with passenger vehicles being worked on, and that's a good start.

B Moore - www.autosavant.net

why bother to argue.. No need for it. America is already screwed big time so just sit back and watch what you built, fall apart. Its not the Governments fault. Its YOUR fault for being so damn ignorant and lazy. Don't say that third world countries are bad. They are actually flourishing because of our stupid and ignorant mistakes. Blame it on the idiots that graduated college but cant feed their own kids because we learn what we don't need. Just sit back and watch it fall apart. Watch this big monster you created burst at the seams. You've ignored the alarms and warnings for far too long now its time to face the consequences. Call me an asshole and say im not patriotic but remember, GM's and Ford's are built in India. So how can I support America when im paying India for a Ford?

"It's tough for many of them to connect the dots - paying money to people that have oil, who in turn give the money to people who want to kill us;"

Which is why there's not oh so novel idea of actually using the oil ON OUR OWN LAND. But no, people are more concerned about a wasteland staying a wasteland and whining about buying oil from other countries than they are about using the resources we have here.

We need higher taxes like we need a hole in the head. almost 50 percent of what you earn is taken from you at gunpoint. we need to lower taxes, stop spending money on useless endevours, and do a compete 180 from this communistic society that some people seem hell-bent on creating in the U.S.

We DEFINITELY need higher tax on gasoline. $0.38/gallon is laughable and is the sole reason the US has such large, heavy vehicles. "Uh, Saddam was an evil person and we needed to take him out" was the reason mentioned after no WMDs were found (resignations were in order back then, but of course we didn't get any) - but... is the US out on some mission to rid the world of "evil" persons now? Of course not. Otherwise they'd have cruised into Zimbabwe by now to remove Robert Mugabe. The main reason America invaded Iraq was to get a firm grip on that OIL. Because the US has a _huge_ dependence on oil, a way bigger dependence than those other "silly little" countries in Europe. We've spent hundreds of billions of US dollars on this invasion to secure oil from Iraq (an invasion that is a shambols courtesy of the 21st-Century soldiers of the insurgent groups... that's another story) - and the cost is simply being added to our massive national debt. But we shoulda never had to go in there in the first place. Plenty of atrocities get ignored by the US every year (Sudan, Zimbabwe etc.), and what was going on in Iraq in the 80's/90's was no exception. Since Iraq has OIL... America had to go in. Bottom line... if we lower our dependence on oil, we won't have to get involved in massively costly military activity in places we really don't care about.

The US should add a small amount to the gasoline tax each year - say, $0.05. That way it will be invisible, as the price varies up and down by way over a dollar each year. We need to start paying down our $10 trillion national debt a bit faster than we are - since we're paying hundreds of billions of dollars in interest payments each year that would be pretty nice in our pockets! Gasoline taxation would be a great place to start since it is hardly taxed right now.

The person who said we could do without CAFE pretty much nailed it. Make gasoline more expensive - and we'll stop buying vehicles for personal transportation that only get 12miles per gallon.

Higher gas taxes? Are you people crazy? We don't need higher gas taxes, we need a lower percentage going to the gas companies. Our taxes haven't gone up, per barrel hasn't gone up significantly, why are we paying twice this year as a few years ago? Why are just a few making trillions off the rest of us.

We want/need cheaper gas. People need to take their blinders off and see that we are being extorted by the oil/gas industry. It's not governments, they are tied just like we are. Only they are "willing" partners due to politics.

In the US, gas taxes pay for our roads.

Reply for David with the cobolt ss 2.2 . You say your drive gives you 28 mpg at a cost of $1.89 - $2.00 a gallon try living in the U.K i drive a Mitsubish L200/ Mighty Max 4X4 2.5 Diesel and i get 23 mpg on a good day . We pay £4.50 a gallon that's $9.00 U S D come TO the U.K and drive around for a week and you will be happy to go back to the USA and gladly pay $4.00 a gallon

Reply for David with the cobolt ss 2.2 . You say your drive gives you 28 mpg at a cost of $1.89 - $2.00 a gallon try living in the U.K i drive a Mitsubish L200/ Mighty Max 4X4 2.5 Diesel and i get 23 mpg on a good day . We pay £4.50 a gallon that's $9.00 U S D come TO the U.K and drive around for a week and you will be happy to go back to the USA and gladly pay $4.00 a gallon