The Day The Oil Stops

“Get America off its addiction to oil.” We hear this often. Even President George W. Bush has entered the game, talking about fuel from wood chips. Swell. The problem is that we don’t see much happening, and we don’t seem to be worried.

Look at our automobiles: V-8 engines are grabbing a bigger chunk of the market, and just about every new vehicle has more horsepower than the one it replaced. Zero-to-60 acceleration is still more important than miles per gallon. Trucks still account for more than half of the auto market–53% in the first two months this year. And that’s down from 54.2% a year ago, though it’s a small decline considering all the talk.

I use the words “blue sky” for solutions that aren’t going to happen in the near future, such as fuel from wood chips, hydrogen engines and fuel cells. The majority of American’s don’t seem to want a significant hike in the government’s mileage standard, called CAFE (corporate average fuel economy), which now requires a manufacturers’ fleet of sold passenger cars to average 27.5 miles per gallon. The standard is lower for light trucks–currently 21.6 miles per gallon–but is very slowly climbing.

We also hear talk of higher fuel taxes, say a hike every year until we get to $5 or $6 per gallon. I don’t like that idea. We use our cars to go to work, and people shouldn’t be taxed for going to work. Even so, if nothing else happens, I would predict increases in the gasoline tax. Every additional penny of tax per gallon would bring in $1 billion in revenue. Our Congress can’t resist that forever.

Forbes