Re: Fuel Efficient Cars (was Oil Economics)

From: spike66 (spike66@attbi.com)
Date: Sun Feb 09 2003 - 16:56:20 MST

  • Next message: spike66: "Re: Fuel Efficient Cars (was Oil Economics)"

    Alfio Puglisi wrote:
    > On Sat, 8 Feb 2003, Rafal Smigrodzki wrote:
    >
    >>### This is such a strong argument against gas taxes: taxing gas is
    >>exchanging *human lives* for a pile of cash at the IRS.
    >>
    > You have it the other way around: taxing gas is saving lots of human lives
    > from reduced pollution. And, as Lee said , big cars seem not to reduce the
    > average mortality rate.
    >
    > Ciao,
    > Alfio

    Rafal had it right both ways. The U.S. has much stricter
    emissions laws than China or India. Lower U.S. fuel taxes
    encourage Americans to drive bigger cars and thus burn
    more fuel cleanly. This increased demand for petroleum
    drives up the price everywhere, including Asia where they
    burn petroleum without so much as a catalytic converter
    in many cases. So taxing gas in the U.S. increases
    pollution globally.

    spike



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