Harvard Researchers Say Fuel Taxes Must Rise

Read the NY Times article here.

Most of my friends have heard about "Cap and Trade" legislation as well as "Carbon Tax". But many have no idea what a "Carbon Tax" does. It would be a legitimate question to ask. Here's another. How does a tax on carbon emissions reduce tax emissions? Well, after doing very little research, I found a reasonable answer to my question.

All fossil-based fuels such as petroleum (gasoline, diesel, kerosene and jet fuel), coal and natural gas release carbon dioxide (CO₂) when burnt. Science tells us (and this part is not disputed) that CO₂ traps solar radiation in the atmosphere. The more CO₂ that is present in the atmosphere, the more solar radiation remains as heat, thereby increasing temperature globally. The disputed part of the science is whether the amount of CO₂ being released into Earth's atmosphere by man's activities (factories, vehicles, power generation, etc.) is significant enough to accelerate a warming trend far beyond it's normal rate of progression.

A "Carbon Tax" would authorize the US federal government to charge companies that use fossil-based fuels based on the amount of CO₂ that they release into the atmosphere. This would provide real economic incentive for companies to stop using fossil fuels and instead use carbon free technologies, also known a "green" energy. The reason? No green energy technology has yet been able to produce one unit of energy (such as a BTU, or a joule, take your pick) as inexpensively as carbon-based fuels. The tax on carbon would then make green energy more competitive. This is similar to protectionist import tariffs on some goods (like Asian steel sold in the US) in order to keep American made steel competitive.

I told you all of that so that you can decide whether or not a recent Harvard research press release is worth it to you or not, because according to them: To meet the Obama administration's targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions Americans may have to experience a sobering reality: gas at $7 a gallon."

Our entire economy is based on inexpensive energy. Here are some predictions if these fuel taxes were to be implemented at this level, which sounds like Harvard is advocating a three and one-half dollar tax on every gallon of fuel sold.

While it would force many commuters to park their cars and start taking the bus, the operating costs for those same public transportation companies would literally double overnight, and they would at the same time find that they could not handle the demand, which would require the purchase of yet more buses/light rail. This is a cost almost no major US city can currently afford.

Airlines would park a significant fraction of their fleets because fuel is near the top of costs. Air travel would once again become the province of only the wealthy.

Food costs would increase because of the doubling of the cost of fuel to not only run the farm equipment to produce the food, but the cost to transport it to market and the cost to package, process or preserve it.

Even railroads and merchant shipping, which move product at amazingly small amounts of fuel per ton, would find their profit margins shrink or even disappear.


In May of 2008, the US Dept. of Transportation reported that miles traveled dropped by 3.7% from the previous year (May, 2007). Further, May was the seventh straight month that miles driven for current were less than previous year. That was when fuel cost had increased from roughly three dollars a gallon in 2007 to over four dollars in 2008.

So try to imagine what would happen if gas were to increase from three dollars (where it currently is in March 2010) to seven.

Even if man-made global warming is a real problem, how can we solve it when the fix will bankrupt our nation? Let's get our financial house in order and then come back to this... PLEASE!