Gas Prices Could Rise to $5 Per Gallon

[JCL]

Back on $5 per gallon gasoline in the US....

Michael Graetz argues that it is absolutely necessary, and more. He is a professor at Columbia, and author of "The End of Energy - The Unmaking of America's Environment, Security, and Independence".

His opinion is that it isn't a foreign policy problem, or a supply problem, but rather a failure of domestic policy over the last 40 years.

Decades after the Arab oil embargo, we accept instability and even war in the Middle East as inevitable. We take it for granted that we will pay the costs in lives and treasure. And although we know that high gasoline prices change people's behavior, Congress refuses to impose taxes that would raise petroleum prices, even though it could devise a way to return all of the revenues from such taxes to the American people based on their household size or level of income. As a result, our growing oil consumption and our reliance on imports continue.

Recommended reading.

The high cost of oil - Los Angeles Times