The Green Machine

The Green Imperative - Andrew Sullivan

The idea of a carbon tax and a gas tax I think are the best ways of going about weening the American public off of petroleum. Matt Yglesias made a salient point that a carbon tax would, in a way, act as a subsidy for green energies as it would make green energy more enticing as a consumer energy source. A gas tax would go a long way to pushing the auto industry to produce higher mileage cars, trucks and SUVs. Something similar was done back in the 70s and the monies earned off the tax was used to help lower-income families purchase higher mileage cars as well as off-set the higher gas price through a income-tax credit. With the auto industry already moving in this direction, a gas tax would only spur more innovation from the market without imposing a government-laden solution. The linchpin of any such effort though is the oil industry itself. I've found myself saying more often lately that any oil giant worth its salt would do well to look into alternative fuels and I still think that is true. The problem is how do you turn an industry that generally looks at alternative fuels with disdain into a friend of green energy?
While I tend to look at green energy in primarily an environmental way I do think that the national security aspect is important and an excellent tactic to garner support from people who would normally attack such proposals. By denying Middle Eastern nations oil money the U.S. could leverage its position more effectively. The whole goal of such an effort is to push those nations like Iran who are generally antagonistic to U.S. interests into a position where the U.S. is a potential ally in maintaining their prestige and influence in the region. The idea is to move nations about without resorting to military solutions.