From owner-freebsd-chat Sat Mar 4 13:44:26 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from lariat.lariat.org (lariat.lariat.org [206.100.185.2]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1BA7437B89B for ; Sat, 4 Mar 2000 13:44:21 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from brett@lariat.org) Received: from mustang (IDENT:ppp0.lariat.org@lariat.lariat.org [206.100.185.2]) by lariat.lariat.org (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id OAA24243; Sat, 4 Mar 2000 14:44:14 -0700 (MST) Message-Id: <4.2.2.20000304134006.041039d0@localhost> X-Sender: brett@localhost X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.2.2 Date: Sat, 04 Mar 2000 13:43:52 -0700 To: cjclark@home.com From: Brett Glass Subject: Re: Great American Gas Out Cc: chat@FreeBSD.ORG 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> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org 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