Gas Guzzler Tax Case Study

1. Americans are known for their long-term love affair with their cars. But as gasoline prices soar and concern about the environment mounts, the standard of living by ordinary people on a daily basis also become difficult; the need to conserve gasoline has become increasingly clear. What would it take to reduce the overall demand for gasoline in the United States most especially as we see it now?

The U.S government has been actively involved in overseeing emission standards for years. This corresponds with the statement made by the U.S Department of transportation that, “Transportation is the largest end-use sector emitting CO2”, and also the statement released by the NRCAN in which, “Fuel usage & carbon dioxide emissions have grown steadily over the past two decades.” These factors are only to be associated with your average four door sedan and/or light truck. These do not include your 18 wheelers, heavy trucks, or the gas guzzling vans that emit more carbon dioxide into the air and are also on the road more today than ever have been before. Cars are readily and easily obtainable more so now than ever have been. This creates more fuel to be burned up in which produces more toxins to be constantly released into the atmosphere. In fact, according to Scientific American “cars relate as much as 30 gallons of GHG, while only driving 3 miles.” These miles can be correlated with something just as simple as your average work commute. According to the United States Census Bureau, “Nearly 600,000 full-time workers had "megacommutes" of at least 90 minutes and 50 miles.” Those workers alone would each be releasing up to 500 gallons of GHG. These can be considered some of the bigger factors that the greenhouse gasses have taken a toll on.

The price of gas has gone up for the 30th day in a row, and with it tempers are rising. Increased demand for public transportation is expected to continue into the spring [1]. The impact of high oil

It has little to no effect to the environment when one car is on the road, but what if there are three billion other cars on the road? With the amount of carbon dioxide discharged into the air, diseases are forming, natural resources are diminishing, ice caps are melting. Who is held responsible for this? Who is responsible for the carbon dioxide debt that we owe the planet? Essentially, the government is held responsible for this clutter. Because of the lack of regulation and promotion from the government, citizens are mindlessly wasting water, littering trash, and overexploiting nature for its valuable resources. Therefore, the government must be held responsible for fostering green practices.

The second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States is related to transportation, the burning of oil to produce energy in a combustion motor. The combustion process inside of engines is what produces the carbon matter that is emitted into the air through the exhaust system on gas-powered vehicles. Gas-powered transportation is accountable for 24 percent of the global carbon emissions; this should not come as much of a surprise given the amount of urban sprawl that is being seen in the United States and across the globe. In the past decade, the Environmental Protection Agency, the United States government, and major car manufacturers have been working in conjunction to find ways to provide a “greener” form of transportation (EPA, 2011). This has included testing the use of hydropower, ethanol, natural gas, biodiesel, and electricity as a means of powering vehicles, which has led to the introduction of hybrid vehicles. Hybrid vehicles run on electricity and gasoline, the byproduct of oil that is generally used in the engine combustion process of vehicles (U.S. Department of

The burning of gasoline by automobiles releases carbon dioxide and other types of air pollution

First, cars pollute the environment. In 2012 the EPA reported that a whopping 28% of emissions came from transportation. As it says in the article “Running off the Road”, by Grover Kingsley, “With their largely petroleum based fuel, cars constantly spew carbon monoxide into the air.” We are responsible for the

To begin, I believe it prudent to discuss the macroeconomic considerations of rising gas prices on both the income and substitution effect. As such, a brief but comprehensive introduction will be needed to help make inference concerning consumer behavior. To begin,

First, the foremost issues at hand are currency and opportunity. Currency and the overwhelming desire for more are the pivotal driving factors in a gasoline and diesel industry. The government receives too much money from these industries to make the adjustments that are necessary. Unfortunately, the government does merely enough to get by. However, Americans need to analyze the opportunities at hand. In the text "Brief Principles of Macroeconomics," author Gregory Mankiw tells us that, " the opportunity cost of an item is what you give up to get that

The demand of gasoline has increased steadily over the last twenty years. In 1981 the U.S. averaged 6.5 million barrels of gasoline consumption per day. By comparison, in 2004 the U.S. averaged 9.2 million barrels of gasoline consumption per day. For most of this time period, gas prices stayed relatively the same. This is because the U.S. refineries increased their production to meet the demand and maintain the equilibrium price. Also during this same time period worldwide demand for crude oil increased 27%. Crude oil producers also increased their production to meet the demand keeping prices the same.

Every day, millions of Americans turn on the engines of their cars and drive to school or work. What these people do not realize is that the vehicles they operate greatly pollute the planet. According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s recent website post, “Environmental Impacts from Automobiles”,

Drivers realize that the price of gas is tied to the market value of crude oil, and has a direct impact to their daily commutes, errands, and vacations. However the reality is that the price of fuel has implications much grater than most consumers realize. Fuel prices affect nearly everything we purchase. For example, the price of farm commodities and food increase because farmers pay more for the fuel for their farm equipment and trucking firms pay more for fuel to get the commodities to market. These shipping “fuel surcharges” impact all goods

Lonnie, I enjoyed reading your discussion this week about raising gasoline taxes. I read the article and found it to be a tough topic to grasp. The article states, “A big argument against raising the gasoline tax to provide more money for transportation projects is that the gas tax, by its nature, affects low- and middle-income people more than it does the wealthy.” I found this statement to be very accurate for many other things as well. As we have learned in this class there are many different ideas to change taxes or hourly wages for certain brackets of individuals but we must look at all the consequences this might cause. Raising taxes for gasoline just for individuals who fall into a specific bracket seems to be unfair. After reading the

The US consumed 142 billion gallons of gasoline in 2007 and the tax applied on it is 18. 4 cents on one gallon. All around the US, there are around 162,000 retail gasoline outlets. With the price of crude oil hovering around $100 a barrel, it is no wonder that concern is growing about the gas prices being so high. After all, modern economies are kept moving by this lifeblood. For instance, in the United States alone personal vehicles consume more than 140 billion gallons of diesel fuel and gasoline per year.However, there are several factors that contribute to the gas prices being so high. Given below are a few of them. Increasing Demand for Oil One of the main catalysts for the incessant rise in gas prices has been one of the most

Automobiles are a major producer of greenhouse gas. One gallon of fuel burned puts five pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Let’s say that an average car gets 25 miles to the gallon, and that car has a ten gallon tank. Every time a car gets filled up with gas, another fifty pounds of carbon dioxide have been put back into the atmosphere, and that is just one car. The automobile industry is very important to the world economy, so I am not saying that we should stop making cars, but there are other solutions. The recent trend of hybrid electric cars that get up to fifty miles to the gallon are becoming more popular. Also public transportation is very important. City dwellers that live downtown, do not need to drive their cars to work. Every major city has a form of public transportation that can get anyone around the city, and for that gallon of gas a bus burns the same five pounds reaches the atmosphere, but instead of one