Public Goods

I was reading in the Washington Post briefly about Democratic Leadership plans to revoke the gas tax. By plans I mean possible proposals, since we are out of office we cannot really have proposals. I think it is high time that gas prices go up. People need to realize that gas is too cheap. Today the majority of the gas price is taken up by the costs of the market, the oil itself, transportation of the oil, refining, and other assorted costs. What the price of oil never really factors in is the tremendous effect that gas can have on the environment. The point of the gas tax is mostly to raise money for the roads and highways, but we should see the tax as a way to pay for something else, air. Air is a public good that everyone uses, and the government cannot prevent people from using it. So to make sure that people do not take up too much of that air we need to find a way of rationing it.
We need to create a market where there is none today. People are able to pollute basically for free, since all they need to do is buy the gas, then they can do whatever they want with the environment around them. There was an article before that talked about how someone had a hard time paying for a fill up on a jeep. There is a simple answer these days, do not but a jeep. Do not buy SUVs, do not buy sports cars, and do not buy trucks, because the vast majority of people do not need them. Its time to buy a civic, get 30 mpg, and stop complaining. Now I do realize that it is hard for lower income people to purchase new automobiles, but they would also better plan their trips to be as economical as possible. People will never be environmental out of pure love of nature, we need to tax them until they bleed, because we only have so much time left. Our environment is at a tipping point, where if we do not drastically lower our emmissions soon we will be in serious, monumental trouble.
And this trouble will not come in 100 yrs, it could come much, much quicker. Global warming is an intricate process that once it gets started is almost impossible to slow down. It is important to realize that economically it will be hard to cope with the extra costs needed to make our society more environmental, but it is time to realize, for everyone, that global warming is a certainty. So I would suggest an incremental raise of the gas tax starting now, for the forseeable future. In conjunction we would need to sharping raise corporate average fuel economy standards, issue rebates for people who buy fuel efficient cars, charge huge "gas guzzler" taxes for people who do not, and spend a great deal of federal money on real alternative energy solutions. We need to act quickly, because we have been profligate for far too long.