Responses to High Gas Prices
Re “Republicans Seeking to Kill State Gas Tax,” March 16:
So the Republicans want to solve the gas-price issue by cutting the gas tax? That’s a little like curing a heroin addict by switching him to crack. Oil companies know that gas prices can be raised with impunity, because we’re addicted to gas. The best way to deal with this problem is to find ways to reduce consumption. Coincidentally, my bus to work was dirty (as usual) and late (as usual). Is the MTA on the oil companies’ side?
PAUL HERZOG
West Hollywood
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Reducing federal and state taxes on gasoline would be a terrible mistake, because all we will be doing is making the oil-producing foreign countries rich at the expense of the average taxpayer. (The only tax break we should consider is to U.S. oil producers to encourage them to produce more, so that we would have to import less oil from abroad.)
We should increase gasoline taxes and use those funds to build good public transportation and rapid transit trains, as has been done in Europe and Japan. In France, Germany and Japan, a gallon of gasoline costs approximately $4.50, of which more than 50% is taxes.
We must do everything possible to provide public transportation. Public transportation would discourage people from purchasing gas-guzzler automobiles; it would certainly alleviate traffic congestion on our highways and protect our environment. It would lower gasoline prices, because our demand for gasoline would be lower.
JONA GOLDRICH
Culver City
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The idea of drawing on the federal Strategic Petroleum Reserve to try to stabilize or reduce the price of gas is the wrong road to take (editorial, March 15). If the OPEC members and the countries that are working with them to set the prices to around $25 per barrel start seeing the U.S. government trying to manipulate the price of oil, they will be very reluctant to increase their production, for fear of an uncontrolled market slide. The major suppliers have stated that they want to increase the production at their scheduled meeting at the end of March to bring the price down to the target price.
If we think that OPEC cannot wait out the year or so that our reserves would last, I believe we are in big trouble. The reserves will still have to be replenished in the end, most likely at the $25-per-barrel target price.
SCOTT C. BALDRY
La Crescenta
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To dissipate the reserve is a (very) short-term stopgap. After it’s gone and the gas hogs have drunk their fill, what happens? Prices skyrocket and the postponed OPEC oil will ride the crest while we try to both refill the reserve and feed the hogs.
A longer-term solution is an inverse miles-per-gallon tax--say, $2 per gallon for 8-mpg vehicles and $0 for 40-mpg vehicles. The problem with this solution is that the Republicans will want to spend the windfall on tax refunds and the Democrats on new social programs. The solution to that dilemma is a tax on the politics of politicians, which leads back to the windfall problem.
RUSSELL D. SHATTUCK
Pasadena