I just read Ann Coulter’s article (It’s hard out here for a pump) and I have to say I do not agree with it. (BTW, she’s a bit nasty, isn’t she? I guess it sells more books.)
Anyway, even though I am conservative (and generally vote Republican) I happen to agree with raising both the CAFE standards and gasoline taxes. But if gas taxes are raised, I’d like it offset by a decrease in the payroll tax. Why isn’t creating huge tax credits to encourage solar, wind, geothermal, etc. not considered a conservative idea? It makes no sense to me.
To me, energy independence is a matter of national security. But if we keep running our cars on as much oil as we currently do, there’s no earthly way we can EVER achieve energy independence. Nuclear power plants will not help my commute to work one bit. And there is no where near enough oil in the boundaries of the US even if we were to drill in all of Alaska, and all along the coast of Florida and the Gulf coast….. We just consume too much. The only way to stop it is to make it more expensive. Look at what happened to smoking?
Every dollar spent in conservation pays for itself time after time after time- future liabilities decrease over time. Every dollar spent on nuclear energy, will first take 10 years (minimum) to pay off at all, but then future liabilities actually increase with the disposal of waste, decomissioning of plants, cleaning up the site, etc, etc.
What about a market-based approach to CAFE? Like the pollution credits that have stopped acid rain? Perhaps a market could be made such that gasoline-guzzling producers would be charged more than non-guzzlers….. But even Toyota produces gas guzzlers….. Not sure exactly how CAFE works, but I believe it’s an average across one’s fleet. But I bet each fleet offering isn’t weighted. If you sell 100,000 Corollas and 10 Tundras I bet your CAFE rating is the same if you sold 10 Corollas and 100,000 Tundras. So, perhaps CAFE can be weighted. Surely, this will heavily favor Toyota et al, at the expense of GM.
This is fine by me because GM produces nothing I want.