Photo by Jacob Enos. Licensed under Creative Commons license 2.0.

Now that the hub-bub over the gas tax holiday has pretty much passed from the commentary pages (funny how that happens), there is a bit of room to take a step back and think about the bigger energy picture. In his latest column, called "Truth or Consequences," New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman (no fan of the gas tax) imagines what a "mythical, totally imaginary, truth-telling candidate" would say about America's energy policy. Let's just say it's not what the remaining presidential candidates are saying. Here's the short version:

• High gas prices are here to stay. The candidate would have to "guarantee people a high price of gasoline - forever."
• $4 gas is good for our driving habits and so this should be the new price floor for gas. Should the market price ever drop below $4/gallon, gas taxes would be increased to keep it at $4. Payroll taxes could be reduced on anyone making less than $80,000 a year.
• If you want to buy a big gas guzzler today, "You are buying a pig that will eat you out of house and home."
• "Ultimately, we need to move our entire fleet to plug-in electric cars. The only way to get from here to there is to start now with a price signal that will force the change."

Darn tootin'.

[Source: NY Times, thanks to Paul S.]

While John McCain's idea of a gas tax holiday was a hit in the U.S. (well, it was a hit with him and Hillary Clinton, anyway), the European Commission is saying no in all sorts of languages to the possibility of the EU capping the value-added tax on fuel. Automotive News Europe reports that the EC shot down a proposal by French president Nicolas Sarkozy to cap the tax by saying any such move was the wrong response to high oil prices and would require unanimous agreement anyway. Sarkozy didn't specify how high he thought oil prices should go before the tax cap kicked in, but it doesn't look like he even needs to bother. The EC's stand is that, "changing taxation on fuels in order to combat increasing prices would send the wrong message to producing countries. This would show them that they could increase prices, and citizens would have to pay for this. So that's really the wrong message," Commission energy spokesman Ferran Tarradellas told ANE. Funny, that's not the message we heard when McCain and Clinton were all 'bout the gas tax holiday.

[Source: Automotive News Europe]

Photo by SEIU International. Licensed under Creative Commons license 2.0.

Man, all this presidential candidate pandering is getting out of control. When John McCain first talked about saving the average family $30 on gas taxes over the summer by instituting a "gas tax holiday," it was easily pegged as a pretty dumb idea that wouldn't do much to help with the average family's budget or with America's addiction to oil. Still, calling for lower taxes is a time-honored pander in American politics, and McCain was soon followed by Hillary Clinton in singing the praises of the tax holiday idea. Her plan includes charging the oil companies $8b to pay for the tax holiday, which McCain's doesn't.

Clinton spent the weekend defending her support, and did so in a bizarre way. During an Indiana town-hall meeting, she did not give ABC host George Stephanopoulos an answer to his question about which economists support the tax holiday. Instead, she tried to argue that the lack of expert/economist support for the idea just means that "elite opinion" is against the working class on this issue.

Clinton and her Democratic rival, Barack Obama, continue to fight over the issue today, with Obama rightly calling the holiday idea a "gimmick" (although, as AutoblogGreen readers have pointed out, he did support a state gas tax holiday back when he was in the Illinois Legislature). In a CBS News/New York Times poll that was released yesterday, voters came out against the holiday: 49 percent said it was a bad idea, 45 said it was good.

[Source: Talking Points Memo, LA Times, Washington Post]

Photo by Ewen and Donabel. Licensed under Creative Commons license 2.0.

First, Republican presidential candidate John McCain had the brilliant idea to prove his ignorance of the economy by calling for a gas tax holiday. Basically, he proposed, the federal gas tax (currently set at 18.4 cents a gallon) and the diesel tax (24.4 cents) should be suspended between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Not much later, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton made the wrong move and backed the plan. Thus far, Democratic challenger Barack Obama is keeping his wits about him and is denouncing the plan.

But what do people who aren't running for president think? It's impossible for us to keep tabs on everyone who discusses the energy issue, because everybody's talking about it. Still, I wanted to point out one bit of media that covers the issue better than any other I've read/seen/heard. Earlier today on the Diane Rhem Show, three guests - Neil King, Jr., The Wall Street Journal's international energy reporter, Roger Diwan, partner, head of financial advisory PFC Energy, Mark Cooper, director of research for the Consumer Federation of America - discussed the gas tax holiday and rising oil prices. I'm not sure which one of the three said it, but one of them called the idea "dumb on all counts." He is not the only critic of the idea (Tom Friedman recently lambasted it); in fact, it seems like just about everyone says it's a bad idea. Diane told her listeners that the show's producer looked long and hard for someone to defend the idea, but couldn't find anyone who was willing. And, while we can't possibly point you to everyone's thoughts on this issue, this morning's Diane Rhem show (listen here) presents a good, hour-long discussion on why McCain and Clinton has grabbed the wrong end of this political stick. Your thoughts?

Photo by Soggydan. Licensed under Creative Commons license 2.0.

Here's an idea only a presidential candidate could love. The presumptive Republican nominee for president, John McCain, today proposed the federal government suspend U.S. gasoline taxes for the summer. On the face of it, I'll admit, there might be a lot of people who love this idea, but it certainly doesn't make a lot of long term sense, either for the economy (isn't our debt high enough already?) or for our efforts to break our addiction to oil.

First, here's the plan: McCain suggests a "gas-tax holiday" that would suspend the federal gas tax (currently set at 18.4 cents a gallon) and the diesel tax ( 24.4 cents) between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Second, let's put this in context and mention that today is when oil prices climbed up and over the $112-a-barrel price for the first time.

Look, it does hurt the wallet to fill up at the pump these days. And calling for relief is a sure way to get people to like you, something most politicians don't turn away from. But, if the tax were removed today, nation gas prices would be around $3.20 a gallon. Is that relief? The next few years (decades?) are going to be painful as we move from gasoline-powered personal transportation to the many and exciting alternatives. High gas prices will help us move to alternatives, as Center for Automotive Research chairman David Cole pointed out last year. Nobody wants to hear this, but it's the truth.

[Source: Associated Press]