gas tax holiday: let's get our heads out of our asses

There's been much hoopla in recent weeks over McCain's gas tax holiday.  Clinton supported it, Obama ridiculed it and yet folks are still divided.  At the end of the day an average American might save about $30 this summer.  That savings won't mean a lot to the middle class, and for the lower class, chances are they can't afford the gas they'd need to consume in order to maximize their "holiday". 

But the real question is how long will we allow ourselves to be pandered to?  How desperate are we for a glimmer of hope that we jump at the first UFO sighting in the sky?  I mean, some people even say it's a good political move but not a smart policy one and that just makes me feel more insulted.  A good political move?  Pandering? About buying oil?

We all know we need to decrease our dependence on oil.  Hell, even Bush knows it and if he knows it, trust me, we all know it so why, in the face of raging cyclones and devastating earthquakes are the candidates not making the environment front and center of each of their campaigns?

Because we aren't asking them to.  Even on MOMocrats, if you look at the poll to your right you'll see how less concerned folks are about the environment over the economy.  But isn't that putting cart before the horse (ha, horsepowered carts!) because there is NO economy without our planet.  There is nothing. But there are also no quick fixes there, no incentives to drive votes.

And that's a shame on all of us. 

Comments

[Amy In Ohio]

Check, check, check - I agree with all of the above. What can Washington do here? Can they mandate that auto makers build more enviromentally friendly automobiles? Can Hummers and Envoys and the like be outlawed? I mean, how in the world can people drive a car getting 12 miles to the gallon? Too much disposable income - for the environment's sake, maybe we do need a deep recession. What are we going to do?

I live in Cincinnati and I've tried every way from Sunday to try to utilize public transportation. You know the only thing I've learned is that the poor of our country are screwed in every possible direction. A trip that would take 15-20 minutes in a car would take us 85-97 minutes on the bus. I know I can't expect the bus system to pick me up at my door and drop me at my destination, but man we gotta do better than a 97 minute commute ONE WAY. I can only imagine the desperation of folks who have no choice in the matter.

I don't know what the solution is, but we gotta find one. And frankly if $4.00/gallon for gas is what we need to start the real dialogue about this issue, then so be it.

[Debbie]

dude. awesome post.

last night on news hour with Jim Lerher, they did a piece on the town of Braddock PA -- I'm totally in love with the mayor, b/c ReadyMade mag wrote a story about him, and his having taken the town in hand and the work he's doing in greening it up; the fella has the city's zip code tattoo'd on his left forearm. that's freaking dedication -- anyway, the piece was sweet. it was about how, not just in Braddock, but in Pittsburgh, people are creating start-ups and using empty lots all over the city to grow switchgrass and sunflowers (both extremely good sources of biofuel; better than corn, waaay better, b/c they grow both more dense and more quickly, thereby utilizing far less space to create far bigger results). And urban farms. and other awesome, green, renewable stuff. they're saving a business that was on its way out, United Oil, because this business is now working with the switchgrass biofuels peeps and they're not only *not* about to go under, they're actually going to have to expand business soon. and they are all about how the fuel is renewable, and gets them off of foreign fossil fuels, and brings business to the local economy, and I swear, as I watched it I wanted to get up and wave a flag and dance and shake my booty.

see? it can happen! it can! whoooooo!

um. I'm a dork. also. am officially done hijacking your comment section.

[Jozet at Halushki]

I'll hijack where Debbie left off...

from The Oil Drum: http://europe.theoildrum.com/node/3952#more

A good discussion in the comments on all things biofuel and why the best thing might be a HUGE increase in tax on gas in conjunction with immediate rationing of the supply. I'd like to see a candidate put this forward. Otherwise, Obama attacking Hillary on the gas tax holiday comes across as smoke-and-mirrors "Look over there!" pandering of its own kind and is actually just as spineless if "tighten the belt hard or we'll do it for you" isn't the main talking point. In other news, in spite of both types of pandering on the gas tax, both Hillary and Obama have similar takes on how to save ourselves from ourselves.

Here's a good primer on Peak Energy (not just Peak Oil) from my friend and yours, Jim Kunstler. I suggest reading it with a highlighter in one hand and a good stiff drink in the other. Ultimately, biofuels will not save us. Ultimately, all the alternative energy put together (the mystical and legendary cold fusion not included) will not equal the energy we get from oil.

www.rollingstone.com/news/story/7203633/the_long_emergency

Jim is a little on the gloom-and-doom end of things, but frankly, I think that preparing for his worst case scenario now - or at least keeping it on the table and watching it with one eye to see whether it moves - is a more prudent bet than hoping that technology will save us. Technology might save us, eventually, but possibly not all of us...the questions are "How great the lag time on the coming of our green and renewable saviors?" and "How many lives are lost in the meantime, Third World lives included?"

Meanwhile, start carpooling, start shaving off whimsical energy use (Hey! Buy a reel mower! Better yet, get rid of your lawn and turn it over to crop production!) and start getting used to inconvenience. We've been riding around on our own stressed-out, last-minute time-schedules like so many little American Princes and Princesses on the back of the the world's resources and now at the expense of lives lost due to food shortages around the world.

And no more NIMBY (not in my back yard) when it comes to honking huge wind turbines disturbing our view from our honking huge homes, and no more Home Owner Associations that don't allow the eyesore of solar panels or outdoor clotheslines. This needs to be grassroots and it means needing to be the pain-in-the-butt neighbor who gets things done.

One more plug: Join a CSA.

www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/pubs/csa/csa.shtml
www.localharvest.org/csa/

In fact, become a host family for your neighborhood:

www.halushki.com/2006/05/veggies-are-here-veggies-are-here.html

That's all. :-)

[Amy in Ohio]

Great comments! I feel inspired!

[Sarah Granger]

I'm so depressed by the lack of attention the environment the candidates, the media, and the voters in general have been putting into this election. It's embarrassing. This is our last chance to elect a truly environmental president and we have nothing showing that our Democrats will do what needs to be done.

[Sara]

i agree completely. focusing on making gas affordable (tax hike, the strategic petroleum reserve freeze) only furthers the crazy american idea that cheap gas for our convenience (damn the planet and anything else) is some sort of birthright that can't be messed with. I live in a city with sucky public transit and my 20 minute commute (one way) would be close to an hour each way if i were to use public transit. When you add to that the even more added time for me to run the normal errands after work (grocery store, taking kid to and from daycare etc.) it could easily add another hour or two on top of that.

Perhaps this will give several people the impetus to agitate for better public transit infrastructure to reduce their gas bills. Or push auto makers to provide more alternative fuel vehicles. Or incentivize restaurants (particularly fast food chains) to invest in converting all their used cooking oil into bio-diesel, making that another revenue source for them and a viable alternative to gas for us. Or encourage more neighborhood based communities where it is actually possible to safely walk to a grocery store, pharmacy, etc. (Can I *tell* you how excited I am about the rumor that a Trader Joe's will be opening up about 1/2 mile from my house?!?!?!). There are so many things that can be done, but haven't, because we've had the luxury of cheap gas...things that have happened in other countries where gas has always been much more expensive.

p.s. we love our reel lawn mower...no extra gas goes into mowing our lawn! and it's not noisy. and you get more exercise mowing. It's a win/win/win!