GeoGreens for Gas Tax (The Hidden Friedman)

In today's Who's Afraid of a Gas Tax? column (requires Times Select subscription), Tom Friedman comments on yesterday's NYTimes/CBS poll showing that 55% of respondents would support an increase in the federal gas tax if it meant reducing our reliance on foreign oil and 59% support if the result was less gasoline consumption and less global warming:

I am sure one reason President Bush suddenly chose to build his State of the Union address around ending our oil addiction and moving toward a renewable-energy future was because his private polling told him the same thing. But Mr. Bush simply occupied this ground rhetorically — before Democrats could get there — without actually offering a real solution.

The only real solution is raising our gasoline tax, which is a paltry 18.4 cents a gallon and has not been increased since 1993. Only if the total price of gasoline is brought into the $3.50-to-$4-per-gallon range — and kept there — will large numbers of Americans demand plug-in hybrid cars that run on biofuels like ethanol. When large numbers of Americans do that, U.S. automakers will move quickly down the innovation curve.

"Impossible," campaign consultants say. "A gasoline tax is political suicide." No, it all depends on how you frame it.

The poll reported yesterday found that 60 percent of those polled, including one-third of Republicans, disapproved of how Mr. Bush is handling our energy crisis. Only 27 percent approved. Most want real action — now. In the poll, 87 percent said Washington should require car manufacturers to produce more efficient cars.

[...]

And that is without a single Democrat or Republican leading on this issue! Imagine if someone actually led?

Well, there might be some Democratic leaders. But we'll get to that in a minute. Back to Mr. Friedman.

Sadly, both sides fear the other will smear them if they run on this issue. O.K., say you're running for Congress and you propose a gas tax, but your opponent denounces you as a wimpy, tree-hugging girlie-man, a tax-and-spender. What do you say back?

I'd say: "Oh, really? I guess you think it is smart, tough and patriotic for us to be financing both sides in the war on terrorism — the U.S. military with our tax dollars, and Al Qaeda, Iran and various hostile Islamist charities with our energy purchases.

"Now how patriotic is that? I guess you haven't noticed that today's global economic playing field has been leveled and that three billion new players from India, China and Russia have walked onto the field, buying new cars, homes and refrigerators. So if we don't break our addiction to crude oil, we're going to heat up this planet so much faster — enough to melt the North Pole and make Katrina look like a summer breeze.

[...]

"And you think doing nothing to reverse that is patriotic? Shame on you, you unpatriotic wimp. Green is the new red, white and blue, pal. What color are you?"

So, no Democratic leadership on the issue? What about Congressman Jay Inslee (from right here in Washington State) and his New Apollo Energy Act? Granted, it doesn't have the gas tax that Mr. Friedman thinks is the prime solution. But it does pull together some interesting business incentives for going green, which is what the government needs to do to push the GeoGreen way. Here's a summary from local blog Evergreen Politics, which recently interviewed Inslee:

The bill’s key features are: 1) loan guarantees for construction of clean-energy generation facilities, 2) significant reductions in daily domestic oil consumption, 3) incentives for driving fuel-efficient vehicles and developing fuel efficient cars and planes, 4) capping emissions of greenhouse gases, 5) investing in federal research into advanced clean technologies, 6) requiring utilities to produce 10% of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2021, 7) creating national standards that allow homeowners to feed surplus electricity back into the energy grid and reinstitute regulatory oversight of energy trading markets, and 8) closing abusive corporate tax shelters and loopholes.

And here's a great quote from the interview:

The Bush Administration lives in a big castle with a moat around it. Good ideas get thrown up but bounce back off those high walls. There is no response. Just recently Bush is mouthing support for getting off oil and there is some good news in that. It may allow us to get some bills through in 2006 if control of Congress switches – bills about flex fuel, the use of biodiesel and increased research & development.

: : : : : : : : : :