Environmental Economics
The cromulent economics blog
recent posts
Category: Gas Tax
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If there's been one consistent thread since the beginning of Env-Econ.net, it's our endearing commitment to helping you understand the incentives of gas taxes vs. mileage taxes. Well, the debate is back in the news again as the governments debate ways to overcome… …the myriad hurdles U.S. states face as they experiment with road usage…
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For years I have railed about the need to get the price of driving right (too many posts to find and link, but here's a good one). Why, oh, why I cry, do we still keep finding needlessly complicated ways to confuse the f*** out of drivers who just want to do the right thing,…
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New York City will implement its first congestion charge program by the end of 2023… perhaps. The charge was passed in 2019 but has faced delays until present. Unsurprisingly, New Yorkers don't love it… but it will grow on them (if you'll forgive my out of sample prediction). The figure below reports percent of residents…
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Every 6 years or so (I'm rounding) gas prices rise, and the results are predictable: Price go up because of some supply shock, the news starts to cover it, people start to complain, politicians start to rumble about price gouging and restricting prices, supply increases, prices fall, and everyone calms down. While higher gas prices…
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While the efficiency of a higher gas tax is well-known, one can only imagine the laughter emitting from the oval office after the "transportation group" packed up their proposal and left: President Trump on Monday said that he is open to raising the gas tax to help pay for infrastructure projects. In an interview with Bloomberg…
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Jared Walczak at the Tax Foundation: On November 1st, New Jersey residents will start paying considerably higher gas taxes, with the rate rising from 14.5 to 37.5 cents per gallon (cpg) as part of a broader tax deal negotiated between Governor Chris Christie (R) and Democratic leadership in the state legislature. … The gas tax hike…
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Shannon Wulf Tregar: Recently, the US Environmental Protection Agency projected that low gas prices will continue to encourage people to buy larger vehicles, and that new vehicle fuel economy won’t rise as quickly as it initially thought. On top of that, after slowing down in the 2000s, the amount people drive appears to be ticking…
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The learning curve for policy makers is steep (ignore market forces at your own risk): Automakers are unlikely to hit the 54.5 mile per gallon average fuel efficiency level that President Obama trumpeted for years, federal officials said Monday. Blaming it on higher-than-expected sales of large vehicles like SUVs, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department…
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Shannon Wulf Tregar at RFF: Several states along the East Coast are proposing pilot programs to help pay for increasing transportation costs. Specifically, they suggest charging drivers fees per miles traveled, instead of imposing a gasoline tax (as is often done at state and federal levels). Although one poll suggested that such a fee would…
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This weirdness happens every time gas prices fall significantly: Falling gas prices have made big, heavy cars fashionable again, said Michael Sivak, the director of sustainable worldwide transportation at the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute. In fact, demand for trucks, S.U.V.s and vans has rebounded to historic levels after they dropped sharply in 2008,…
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