Apr

30

On the crazy petrol policy front …

April 30, 2008 | 2 Comments | Joshua Gans

… the United States who are contemplating a temporary pause in petrol taxes. And wait there is more: to make up for lost revenues, they are proposing to tax oil companies! And even more disturbing, this is a plan that Senators McCain and Clinton appear to agree but that Senator Obama and most likely the Whitehouse oppose. Is there no neat political divide when it comes to petrol?


Comments

2 Responses to “On the crazy petrol policy front …”

  1. Josh Parris on April 30th, 2008 10:37 am

    Take the tax off gasoline, put it on oil company profits. But, I assume, only American oil companies, foreign oil companies can continue to make out like bandits.

    Also: 18.4 cents a gallon? That’s… 4.6 cents a litre! This is causing pain to “hard-hit middle-class families and older Americans”? 100 litres a week is $46 in taxes, and this is the source of their pain?

  2. Brian on April 30th, 2008 11:02 am

    What’s more, the proposal involves reduced road maintenance spending, which will lead to a deterioration in the quality of US roads. It seems logical that poorer quality roads would result in lower mileage, and effectively higher gas costs.

    When are politicians, in the US, Australia, Indonesia and elsewhere, going to realise that purporting to have the ability to control fuel prices will become a significant political liability as prices continue to rise?

    Consumers need to be educated that rising fuel prices are not the result of taxes, cartels, greedy oil companies or global conspiracies, but the natural effect of rising global demand for a dwindling non-renewable resource.