Projo Cars Blog

For decades our lawmakers have resisted calls to raise gas taxes in line with much of the rest of the developed world.

Making gas more expensive, it has long been argued, would insure an increased emphasis on fuel efficiency which in turn would reduce carbon emissions.

Auto makers, understandably, have been resistant to higher gas taxes. And together with such key players as the steel, oil, rubber, glass, plastics, roadbuilding and textile industries, they have successfully lobbied to deep taxes low.

The result: gas and diesel prices about half those of most of the developed world. That led to continued demand for profitable if gas-guzzling SUVs and limited incentive to seriously pursue fuel efficiency let alone alternative fuels.

It also led to exaggerated dependence on those vehicles that was exposed last year when the market turned upside down.

To be sure, 2008 was an absolutely horrible year for all auto makers. With consumer demand changing almost overnight as oil/gas prices soared to record levels and then dropped back dramatically, combined with the economic recession and the credit crunch, it was an impossible market.

But U.S. auto makers were particularly hard hit, partly because of their reliance on big profits from big vehicles, most infamously the SUVs, which in turn were dependent on low gas prices.

Now a federal commission is looking at raising fuel taxes to allow it seems there is a third reason to increase gas taxes: to raise revenue to pay for roads and bridges.

This according to The Associated Press which reports the National Commission on Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing is calling for increasing the current 18.4 cents a gallon federal tax on gasoline and the 24.4 cents a gallon tax on diesel by about 50 percent.

"In a report expected in late January, members of the infrastructure financing commission say they will urge Congress to raise the gas tax by 10 cents a gallon and the diesel tax by about 12 cents to 15 cents a gallon," the AP reports.

Such a move would hardly bring prices up to European levels. Gas taxes in Britain, for example, account for some 70 percent of the price of a gallon.

In Rhode Island, for example, where gasoline is about $1.75 as gallon - it ranges from $1.50 to nearly $2.00, according to rhodeislandgasprices.com the current federal and state gas taxes make up about 42 percent of the price of a gallon of gas. A 10 cent increase in the federal tax would increase overall taxes to about 50 percent of the price.

And that it seems to be is a moderate price to pay for increased revenues to pay for our nation's deteriorating infrastructure as well as forcing us to focus on more fuel efficient and cleaner engines.

- Peter C.T. Elsworth

 Tags  Gas prices Gas taxes Rhode Island

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