Four decades of experience suggests the only way to wean the nation off its ruinous oil addiction is prices that go up and stay up. And, although it’s a political non-starter for now, the simplest and best way to achieve that is to gradually raise the federal gasoline tax, now 18.4 cents a gallon, where it has been since 1993.<\/p>\n
The arguments for a gas-tax increase are no less compelling for their familiarity. Higher taxes would produce substantial revenues \u201d\u201d roughly $1 billion a year for every extra penny in tax \u201d\u201d that could be used to fix roads and reduce the budget deficit. They would make fuel-efficient cars more attractive.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, higher taxes could help drive alternative technologies that would slow the flow of money to finance some of the world’s worst regimes and multinational oil companies, such as BP.<\/p>\n
Whether increasing the gas tax would reduce the need for drilling in environmentally sensitive areas such as the Gulf depends on worldwide demand for oil, which is being driven upward by the rising economies of China and India. But those countries have their own efforts to curb gasoline use, and reducing consumption in the USA, the world’s top oil consumer, is essential.<\/p>\n