This is the perfect time of year for governments to raise gas taxes. It's 'traditional' to have a price increase this time of year, why not jump on the bandwagon? Blame will go to the oil companies and the rest of us will benefit instead of just the oil execs and their 'perks'. Do it, do it do it!!! Our roads are a mess and need structural work.
In Texas, the big government push is for the multi-multi BILLION dollar TransTexas corridor. It will eat up 1/4 mile of land from Mexico all the way to Oklahoma. Of course, it will be a toll road. I'd rather see a $1 TransTexas Corridor Gas tax added to our fuel than pay every time I wanted to use the highway system. In my opinion, if the gasoline was more expensive, it would force people to buy more econmical vehicles and perhaps spark energy convservation on all fronts. I think it was just a year ago several of us, me included, wish gasoline would hit $4/gal to help get rid of the wasteful SUVs and Supercrew cab pickups with one driver in them. Of course, I've slept since then.
Oil and gas prices are set by market forces which include an element of speculation of future prices. The pricing mess we are in now is a direct result of TOO CHEAP fuel costs in the '90s when oil companys were not making much profit. New production and infrastructure for suppy development was not happening to the scale needed for future demand. Morons in America with such cheap gas started building and buying Stupidity Ugly Vehicles that soon would teem up with rapidly growing Indian and Asian economies. Toss in a war of terror in the ME and NIMBY for development and you get the current pricing issues! The problem is bigger than greedy oil companys jacking prices up! If you have access to the commodity futures markets, check out the price of unleaded gas futures and look at the charts. Dramatic rise since mid January.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(CapeCodPrius @ Mar 3 2007, 02:41 PM) [snapback]399523[/snapback]</div> Count me in as glad that prices have gone up as well, but I think comparing the gas prices to places whether alternative transportation is better, faster, and cheaper is not apples to apples. Not to mention the urban sprawl that makes walking/biking difficult. Not that those things are good, but if the gas prices were taxed, the money should go to developing alternative methods. These problems are not going change overnight even if the price jumps up to $4 or $5 a gallon quickly.
