Lower fuel prices as a losing strategy
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Posted on May 20, 2006
Filed Under Deep ecology, Ecological overshoot, Ecological hope, Consumer culture, Fossil fuel dependency, Earth spirituality
Today from Margaret Swedish:
Today's Washington Post reports that Democrats are going to use high gas prices as a central focus of election campaigns. That's fine. The Bush administration deserves scathing critiques for its pro-energy industry policies of the past 6 years. We have lost a lot of critical years to begin weaning this country from fossil fuels and the consumption habits based on them.
But the Dems are also saying they are going to run on a platform to reduce the price of gasoline at the pump. Another losing strategy. High prices represent rising demand and tightening supplies. This will continue and worsen from now until the oil and gas run out. What is obscene are the high profits being made by the oil companies and their stockholders off the increasing pain for the budgets of working families and the poor. That's what needs to be addressed.
Prices will not and cannot fall appreciably. They will rise and they should. Higher gasoline taxes will help shrink demand and could help pay for more mass transit, development of alternative fuels, etc., while tax credits and breaks for the poor and workers whose livelihoods depend on gas could be legislated. We could start with big fat taxes on oil companies' windfall profits. But don't look for these things from this government. And don't expect Dems. to run on this platform.
Sounds like Dems will instead make false promises that they cannot keep. What is really needed is leadership to guide us through the difficult and painful transition that will come — one we can either honestly prepare for, or else continue to react to as the pain worsens and deepens.
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