Cheap gas is killing the planet

April 23, 2007 - By John LeBlanc

Twenty million people participated in the first Earth Day held on April 22, 1970. Since then, nobody can dispute the massive awareness the once-a-year event has directed towards our planet’s degrading environmental health. Notwithstanding the increased levels of personal and governmental environmental consciousness, and the subsequent legislative actions mitigating further destruction of our planet, the reality is we humans—especially here in North America—are still screwing up our world. And royally.

A large, (but not the largest) contributing factor to the current downslide of the Earth’s health is the habits of North American car drivers. So in honour of Earth Day 2007, I need to bend your ear about a solution to a problem that politicians have failed to achieve. Basically, how to get us to make significant changes in their transportation choices that benefit the environment.

My solution, literally overnight, could turn driving from being seen as an act of social irresponsibility to one contributing to a better society. My answer can also be applied universally, and is unbiased towards any particular technology solution.

Called the Rational Energy Program, my resolution is for the federal government to immediately tax gas at the fuel pumps to total $2 per litre. Permanently. Why now? Why double the price? Why more taxes?

Since that first Earth Day, 37 years ago, governments have made seemingly sincere attempts to curtail car owner’s energy consumption and nasty tailpipe emissions. Compared to the 10 miles per gallon, carbon dioxide spewing, behemoth death traps our parents drove, today’s cars are truly science fiction. So why don’t more North Americans buy them?

Chiefly because gasoline is still too darn cheap.

Unfortunately, by targeting auto makers instead of car drivers, governments’ past approaches contradict a paradigm shift in the consumer market. Today, consumers—not manufacturers or legislators—have a larger say in which products sell. If the safest, coolest looking, most fuel efficient subcompact auto maker’s can make still can’t get you out of your large pickup or SUV, then obviously the cost to fuel the beast isn’t hitting you hard enough in your wallet.

In essence, North Americans car buyers only have themselves to blame for the current crop of new cars and trucks. Just look at Europe; $1.80 per litre for gas is as common as “I love David Hasselhoff” t-shirts.

But it’s there that car buyers have to make intelligent decisions about how much vehicle they really can afford. And because Europeans demand both driving pleasure and fuel efficiency, whether its gasoline, diesel, or hybrid—the technology doesn’t really matter. Relying on our politician’s math of doesn’t seem to be working, either.

The recently introduced federal government’s ecoAUTO Program looks environmentally admirable.

But it applies only to a small portion of the auto market. Ontario’s "Tax for Fuel Conservation", which can add as little as $75 to the price of a new car, has little effect on buyers as well. And these new car programs don’t address the problem of aging cars that pollute exponentially more than any 2007 model.

So how would driving under my new Rational Energy Program be seen as contributing to a better society?

A study for the German government by the German Technical Cooperation concluded that additional fuel taxes would bring the financial resources necessary to improve roads and public transport. The extra funds can also be directed towards social services such as schools and healthcare.

Realistically, like back in the late 1960s, it would take the political will of voters—not legislators caught up in their own micro-agendas—to bring into effect my Rational Energy Program.

Given that knowledge, what are the chances we can end the need for another Earth Day?

- John LeBlanc, Publisher, www.straight-six.com