My big fat American gas tax

[смешно]

Какое уродство предлагают! Наверно коммунисты-социалисты. За это надо отстреливать.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/05/21/news...ion=2007052113

Should Americans consider a big price hike in an attempt to reduce demand and transfer money from Big Oil to the general public?

By Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney.com staff writer
May 21 2007: 1:57 PM EDT


NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- It seems completely counterintuitive: Raise the gasoline tax to help American commuters.
Motorists are already paying well over $3 a gallon, and there are signs that it's beginning to cut into demand and hurt consumer spending.



But if a big gas tax was levied - like the $1 or $2 tax Europeans have to keep prices permanently over $3 or $4 a gallon - how could that possibly help American consumers?
One argument says a tax would crimp demand, lowering wholesale prices.
"Anybody with any brains has advocated that, but not the politicians." said Fadel Gheit, an energy analyst at the financial services company Oppenheimer.
Tell us what you think
Lower wholesale prices, which would mean less profits for oil firms, combined with a higher tax could transfer money from Big Oil to the government, which could then use the cash for public programs.
Consumers would have to pay the same amount - or even more than now - but at least that extra cash could be returned to them in some way.
It might be used as a tax credit to offset the sting for those with a lower income, countering one of the most common arguments against such a tax. It could also go towards improvements in mass transit, expanded student loans or lower health insurance premiums.
Lower gasoline consumption would also reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a growing concern in the face of global warming.
"We still don't pay very much in gas taxes," said Lee Schipper, research director at Embarq, the World Watch Institute's Center for Sustainable Transport.
While wholesale prices for gasoline are generally the same in Europe as they are in the U.S., Schipper noted the $5, $6 or $7 a gallon Europeans pay, thanks to the high tax.
Americans, by contrast, pay a federal tax of about 18 cents a gallon. State taxes vary but are generally lower than 40 cents a gallon.
"As long as the marginal cost of driving is so low, the big changes aren't going to happen," said Schipper, who supports both a larger U.S. gas tax and more fuel-efficient vehicles.
By big changes, he means driving attitudes that more closely resemble Europe's, where he said there are 30 percent fewer cars per person, 30 percent fewer miles traveled per car and cars that use 30 percent less fuel.
Consumers stung by record gas prices
Now sure, it may be easier for the Europeans to do this. The continent is more densely populated, and development has historically been more clustered in towns. Public transport is undeniably better. But whether this is a result of their high taxes is debatable.
Schipper said the European gas taxes were instituted in the 1920's, primarily as a luxury tax on automobiles, which were then mostly toys for the rich.
The relatively vast network of rail lines were already laid, and gasoline tax revenue was directed to general state coffers. Even today, gas taxes go to the state's general budget and are not specifically marked for mass transit or other environmental projects.
Still, he believes the high taxes have encouraged people to live closer to city centers and to buy cars that get better mileage.
"If gasoline was always expensive, you have to conclude that some of that had an impact," he said. "What Europe realized is they could steer consumption, not just raise money."
Others aren't so convinced.
Denny Ellerman, a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management, also noted that the rail lines were already built before the gas tax. He also pointed to the terrible auto congestion in cities like London and Paris, and that Europeans don't appear to be deterred from heading out to the suburbs, which require a longer commute.
Ellerman said urban sprawl, while not matching the extent of the U.S., is increasing. He said it has yet to reach American levels - not because of higher fuel prices- but due mainly to higher land prices and lower income.
As far as instituting a bigger gas tax in this country goes, he wasn't for it.
He said most everyone has to use gas, and taxing it would hit the poor the hardest.
Ellerman also thought there were too many other variables for a gas tax to result in lower wholesale prices. Supplier nations like OPEC could simply cut production, or other nations could take advantage of falling demand and prices in the U.S. to use more themselves.
So could a gas tax result in lower wholesale prices and the resulting transfer in money to the government from oil companies? "That's absolutely fantastic thinking," he said.

[Mikhail-u]

Какое уродство предлагают! Наверно коммунисты-социалисты. За это надо отстреливать.

]

только услышал? В Н-Й - было 63ц/галон налог при низких ценах, а сейчас небось и того выше. Это левая адженда давнишняя. Вон в Европе дерут налоги порядка 100% на бензин - надо же содержать "палестинцев".

[смешно]

только услышал? В Н-Й - было 63ц/галон налог при низких ценах, а сейчас небось и того выше. Это левая адженда давнишняя. Вон в Европе дерут налоги порядка 100% на бензин - надо же содержать "палестинцев".

Миха, но это же грабёж средь бела дня!

[Mikhail-u]

Миха, но это же грабёж средь бела дня!

Ака социализм.

[Alter Ego]

Ну конечно. Надо же Бушу демократию в Ираке строить. Не за свой же счёт.

[sharik]

Ну, за свой не за свой, пока что строим всё же свой

[sharik]

[One argument says a tax would crimp demand, lowering wholesale prices.]

Деманд на гас совсем не еластичный, особенно в ЛА, где транспортной системой практически никто не пользуется. Если сутановят тах больше всех пострадают бедные слои населения
А вот ещё:

Record gasoline prices are changing the equation of the refining business, generating unprecedented profits for the companies that transform crude oil into fuel.

For every barrel of oil they use to make gasoline, refiners are pocketing more than $30 in profit before taxes and other expenses. That is the most they have reaped per barrel since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The major producers of gasoline in the U.S. earned about $10 billion from their refining operations domestically and abroad in the first quarter, up 50% from a year earlier.

Analysts are projecting earnings will be even higher in the second quarter, due to lower-than-normal gasoline inventories. Rising demand, a string of refinery outages and a drop in gasoline imports earlier this year curbed supplies and raised prices. Some refiners, such as Tesoro Corp., are using the cash gusher to finance upgrades. Others, such as Valero Energy Corp., the largest refiner in North America in terms of capacity for crude oil and other feedstocks that go into the refining process, are shipping the cash back to shareholders by buying back shares.

Fuel prices aren't likely to stay this high for too long. Gasoline prices and margins are expected to fall in the next few years as major refining projects under way in Asia and the Middle East, as well as refinery expansions in the U.S., help fill the growing gap between domestic supply and demand.

Hardly anyone is using the extra cash to build new refineries from scratch, says Nicole Decker, an energy analyst at Bear Stearns. "The permitting process is daunting, and there is a 'not in my backyard' mentality, which together, have stalled out proposals to build," she said.

President Bush's energy-conservation push may give refiners even less incentive to boost output in the short term. The president has proposed to increase alternative- and renewable-fuels use to 35 billion gallons a year by 2017, lessening the need for gasoline. This week, the Bush administration said it planned to substantially lift the fuel-economy standards for automobiles, another step designed to cut gasoline use.

Refiners are also reluctant to spend billions of dollars in building refineries because it would take years to recover their investment and they say they are unsure about future demand. The last new refinery in the U.S. opened in 1976. "It's a very, very cloudy investment picture," says Lynn Westfall, chief economist and senior vice president at Tesoro.

[смешно]

Естественно ударит по бедным, да и вообще по всем ударит, и никакие цены не понизятся, это блеф. Большинство, от этого повышения, меньше ездить не будут.