Date: Sat, 04 Mar 2000 13:43:52 -0700 From: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> To: cjclark@home.com Cc: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Great American Gas Out Message-ID: <4.2.2.20000304134006.041039d0@localhost> In-Reply-To: <20000304132611.B48777@cc942873-a.ewndsr1.nj.home.com> References: <4.2.2.20000304091423.040b5590@localhost> <38BFEEA8.1A465CFC@softweyr.com> <59063B5B4D98D311BC0D0001FA7E452201313909@l04.research.kpn.com> <38BFEEA8.1A465CFC@softweyr.com> <20000304101212.A384@internode.com.au> <4.2.2.20000304091423.040b5590@localhost>
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At 11:26 AM 3/4/2000 , Crist J. Clark wrote: > > Same in the US and Europe. Driving is a sin that must be taxed, y'know. > >Driving is an activity that incurrs a cost on society, building roads, >regular maintainance, salter, snow plows, maintainace to fix the >damage the snow plows did, etc. It does cost money to maintain the infrastructure. But the taxes are far above that. Why? Because, during the 70's, they became "sin" taxes. > > This week, I traveled from Wyoming to California and discovered that > > gas prices were 25% higher in the Golden State than in the Cowboy > > State. Why? Because Californians "tax" themselves by requiring that > > everyone buy fuel with high concentrations of MTBE, an oxygenating agent. > > MTBE was supposed to reduce pollution, but in fact is a worse pollutant > > than oxides of nitrogen ever were. However, since only California > > refineries make gas with a high enough concentration of MTBE, Californians > > are locked into buying from these few sources and the price goes up. > > WAY up. Los Angeles will have $2.50 gas this summer. > >Yet the number of f*cking SUVs and other gas-guzzling vehicles in the >region will continue to rise as will the miles driven per vehicle. We'll see. Hopefully, the SUVs will at least stop getting larger. The new Ford Expansion -- or is it the Explosion? -- won't fit in most garages. I've heard that Cadillac is coming out with one called the Manifest Destiny. It'll take up the whole block. > > It's the same the whole world over. Energy policies and fuel costs aren't > > driven by markets or even common sense. They are controlled by big > > cartels, big government, and politics. > >Just like everything else. All too true. --Brett To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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