Fuel Efficiency Bill
Interesting bill coming out at the last minute in Olympia, wth Mayor Nickels' support, penalizing drivers for driving less fuel-efficient cars.
An interesting idea, in theory, but I'm generally opposed to narrow interventions like this. Better to simply raise the gas tax, which rewards people for driving less.
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Wow! Talk about a wrong guy in the wrong place at the wrong time! The Sierra Club guy says this would "initiate" discussion, but I think it's more likely to irritate discussion.
Considering the thousands of tons of particulate and gas emissions that the Port of Seattle dumps in the air every year, Mayor Nickels might consider plucking the beam from his own eye before he reaches for the mote in his neighbor's eye.
Where I live, most of the people don't have any money in the last week of the month. As for buying a new fuel efficient car, ha ha, does Hizzoner take drugs to get those visions? Having $40 car tabs go to $120 (on top of gas prices that have some of us spending half our disposable income on fuel) would just be cruel, because, guess what, the Food Bank doesn't always have food out here either.
What might work is if the entire new tax were dedicated to new bus routes in rural counties. Dial-a-ride doesn't work when you have to start real early or come home real late.
And this is just adding injury to insult, because out here people already drive the most fuel-efficient vehicle they can. Lots of 20-year-old Fiestas and Geos out here.
I'm just one twitch short of keying the next Hummer I see, but this proposal at this time seems a little *unwise* to me.
It's a good point, there certainly would be an impact for lower-income people. But I think most carbon tax proposals try to be "revenue-neutral." You increase the gas tax and than decrease payroll or sales taxes by an equal amount so that people don't end up actually being taxed more.
Not sure how realistic that is, but that's the theory, anyway.