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flstf, I'm proposing not to camouflage the extra cost but to tack it onto consumers' bills directly. That's much more honest than burying the additional charges in the oil companies' own bills, or the cost of a car, or any of the other ways that charges get swallowed by a company and then included in the price passed along to the consumer.
Burying and hiding the costs is one reason the public doesn't change its behavior. For instance - with CAFE standards, the enforced higher mileage adds to the price of a car and get financed at a few extra dollars a month, so no one notices. Plus, with better mileage people drive more and use more gasoline anyway. Leave car mileage alone and charge what petroleum really should cost, and you'll see massive migration away from gas guzzlers - sorta like what's happening now, only more marked.
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