? about Hybrids and reduction of oil sources....

[obxhead]

A stupid (yet now obvious question) was posed to me during halftime Sunday

If we were to convert most of our vehicles to alternative (non oil or ethanol) and battery/hybrids, How do we replace the tax dollars that petrol brings in?

I thought this a VERY good question. Our roads depend so much on petrol taxes and they are already in horrible shape.

[Bluestar]

1. We could save billions

of dollars in tax money that is spent trying to save the environment if we could rid ourselves of fossil fuel emissions.

[obxhead]

2. please explain.... I know of no real programs other than

mandatory ethanol mixtures to reduce emissions.

[I_Make_Mistakes]

3. Also, medical costs. Hybrids are much cleaner and dirty air

contributes to a great number of breathing illnesses. The question then becames, how do we replace the pharma tax dollars. (Sarcasm)

Edit : Forgot about the is it MTB or P problem as well.

[rman]

4. battery/hybrids can be taxed

petrol won't keep coming in anyway; can't tax it once it has run out.

[salin]

5. They will always be able to find new ways to tax

heck arnie's novel way of getting at hybrids is to tax by mile driven (using tech to track, spooky - eh?) as a "user fee" of roads.

[papau]

6. Arnie to tax per mile - not per weight times mile - "user" cost is size of

vehicle driven.

But I guess that would hit the H2 and H3 crowd at the GOP convention.

[Tesha]

7. Taxes amount to less than 40 cents or so.

If we *DOUBLED* the fleet fuel mileage, we could *DOUBLE*
the gas tax and it would only amount to a fraction of the
increase in user cost that the oil companies have pushed
on us since Shrub's election.

(Gas was roughly $0.99 at the end of Clinton/Gore;
it's now roughly $2.50, a $1.50 increase that people
have managed to somehow accept and adapt to. They could
adapt to another $0.40 tax increase as well if they
were then using *HALF THE GALLONS*.)

It's an anti-hybrid, anti-efficiency red-herring of
a question.

Tesha

[Tesha]

8. In case anyone was unsure...

In case anyone was unsure... When I said:

> It's an anti-hybrid, anti-efficiency red-herring of
> a question.

This was *NOT* an attack on the original poster. Rather,
it was a suggestion as to how we should deal with these
sort of stupid, baiting "Have you stopped beating your
spouse yet?" questions that Neo-Cons like to throw at
us in the hopes of causing us to stumble.

So gas tax revenue will decrease? How tragic! Maybe we
can afford to build fewer roads? Maybe we can afford to
pay more gas tax if we're burning a hell of a lot less
gas? Maybe you, Mr. Neo-Con, are asking this question
because you got rich as a highway contractor?

-or -

The King Funeral was political? *YOU BET YOUR ASS IT WAS!*
Just like the Reagan funeral! And we're proud of the things
our side had to say and you ought to be ashamed of the fact
that you had a moron speaking for your side. And you ought
to be equally ashamed that there is not *ONE SINGLE BLACK
REPUBLICAN SENATOR OR CONGRESSMAN SERVING TODAY? WHY IS
THAT, MR. "Oh, you made it sooo political"? COULD IT BE
BECAUSE YOU'RE A PACK OF CLOSET RACISTS?

Don't give them an inch!

Don't let them cause you to stumble!

Don't let them set the frame!

No quarter!

No mercy!

Tesha