Let's Tax Auto Fuel Inefficiency

This is a simple solution to encouraging car makers and auto buyers to invest in fuel efficient cars. Tax cars based on their inefficiency.

• Set a target of 50 mpg (average city/highway mileage).
• Cars doing better than this are untaxed.
• For every 1 full mpg below 50 charge a 1% tax on the sale price.
  
• Charge this tax on every new vehicle sold - cars, vans, trucks, and SUVs.
  

The least efficient car sold in the United States, according to the Department of Energy, is the Bentley Arnage. It averages just 12 mpg. With a list price of a quarter million dollars, the tax on this Bentley would be around $95,000. The most efficient car, the Toyota Prius, gets about 48 mpg. A 2% tax on a $24,000 would be only $480. The Chevy Silverado (18 mpg, $20,000 sale price) would have a 32% tax of $6,400.

Oppressive? Perhaps, but it is supposed to be. Right now that Chevy truck costs less than a Prius and does considerable more damage. It is only fair and proper that a Silverado buyer compensate the rest of the people for his excess consumption of gasoline that is driving up the price for everyone else. Chevrolet, on the other hand, would have a damn good reason to redesign their trucks to be more fuel efficient. It would be a win all around.

It's a pity this will never happen. Too many men, and quite a few women, equate the size of their pickup truck to the size of their penis. They feel it is their God given right to drive a two and a half ton pickup to the grocery store for a bag of chips and a cup of low-fat latte. Any politician to suggest this would not survive the lynch mobs.