1) Uhm, this is your price of gasoline now $1.89
2) This is your price of gasoline with an added $2.00 federal tax: $3.89

Question: Are you more likely to buy a fuel efficient car with # 1 or 2?

Instead, we will have ex-AIG execs with steel-clad bonuses putting together a system whereby the new price of gas will be $1.89 per gallon x a function of how much they get paid should gasoline consumption decline, plus umpteen additional functions that only they will understand.

It will look something like this: New price of gasoline in 2010 = $1.89 x 3.14 x (1/3 NP*G) + AIG iron-clad bonus(ICB) + cap x (CO2 – 2009CO2) / price of oil + ExxonMobil ICB + 2 x (#.^@%). So…gas will cost ~$?.??

OK, Now, given THAT answer, how likely are you to buy an efficient car?

As Einstein once said, always keep things as simple as possible…

I’m in favor of planting trees.

Not so. Under current SO2 cap and trade regulations, all of the permits to pollute are granted to existing emitters. (Mostly the large coal plants.) They continue to receive those permits even if they reduce emissions or stop operating entirely. They then sell those permits to others who continue to emit. We must not repeat this approach when we cap CO2.

Under a cap and trade scenario, the only way to reduce actual emissions is to reduce the number of permits in circulation. There is a major effort underway to ensure that when renewable energy is added to the grid, reducing the amount of fossil fuel burned, there is a commensurate reduction in available permits. That approach will get us what we know we need — more renewable energy and less CO2.

Hybrid car sales go from 60 to 0 at breakneck speed
“The gas-electric vehicles are piling up on dealers’ lots as anxiety over gasoline prices evaporates. But more hybrid models are on the way.”
http://www.latimes.com/ business/ la-fi-hybrid17-2009mar17,0,6682265.story?track=rss