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Originally Posted by loquitur
A gas tax holiday is a terrible idea. In fact, I think gas taxes should be doubled or tripled. Anything that raises the price of gasoline is good for the country. It's good for the environment, it encourages better land use, it frees us from dependency on some of the world's worst regimes. The higher the price of gasoline the more likely it is that we'll find a better alternative that is economically feasible.
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loquitur you surprise me here, I didn't see you as a social engineering type via artificial pricing.
While all of your points are valid lets look at places where they have been doing just that, pretty much all of western Europe and Canada. Have they come up with better solutions? Alternative fuels?
You could argue that they have better public transportation systems and I'll grant you that, (well I can't say it for Canada), but beyond that, they have weaker economies, and higher prices on just about everything. Now how much of that is due to their artificially increased fuel costs and how much is due to their putative tax policies I don't know but it can't be helping.
America is a massive country and in order to operate at full potential we need cheap energy. I have complete faith that at some point we will find alternative energy sources which do everything you are looking for, but scientific progress isn't just based on need and money. Discoveries and ideas are more luck and rare genius, and limiting ourselves prematurely doesn't sound like a good idea to me.