Some ideas I had on cars, alternative fuels, and the environment

[Ian David]

I want excise tax based partly on THE MILES PER GALLON of the car.



Tax each car based on how many MGP they get.

Imagine if General Motors sold a fuel-cell car that uses gasoline as its hydrogen source, gets 100 MPG, and costs $130,000.

And if we eliminated excise tax on any vehicle that gets over 75 MPG.

That will also encourage automakers to sell cars with better mileage (say 50-70 MPG) they could even raise the prices on the more efficient cars and still make shitloads of money. The lower excise tax would encourage consumers to buy cars with better mileage, and to spend more money up-front to do so.

I would sell cars at levels like:

45-55_ MPG Hyprids:........$10,000 - 20,000
56-65_ MPG Hybrids:........$15,000 - 30,000
66-75_ MPG Hybrids:........$25,000 - 60,000
66-75_ MPG Fuel Cell:......$40,000 - 90,000
76-100 MPG Fuel Cell:......$60,000 - 200,000
100+ MPG Fuel Cell/Other:..$150,000+

100% Solar Cars would pay zero excise tax and actually get a tax credit.



If you own an electric car, you would also get a partial tax-credit to install solar, wind or geothermal powered charging stations.

The oil companies could profit from developing fuel-cells, as well as more efficient ways to strip Hydrogen from gasoline.

All those oilfields that have been sucked dry could be converted into "solar farms, "wind farms," or sources of geothermal energy.

Offshore oil platforms can be converted to harness wind energy, tidal energy, or solar energy to fraction Hydrogen from sea water. (But what do you do with all that salt?)

Maybe the oil companies can figure out a way to scrub Hydrogen Sulfide pollution out of the air and use it to make Hydrogen for fuel?

The environment would be happy. The automakers would be happy. The customers would be happy. The oil companies would be happy.



And by liberating all that Oxygen out of the water, could we possibly be diluting the CO2 in the air and lowering global warming?

It used to be that environmentalism was a STATUS SYMBOL. Having solar cells on your roof showed the world that you were wealthy enough to be Earth-friendly.

Ed Begley Junior talked about his electric car at every opportunity, back when Johnny Carson hosted The Tonight Show.
http://www.evworld.com/archives/interviews/begley.html

But now, the status symbol is how big your car is and how much gasoline you can afford to buy.

[TheFarseer]

1. Good thoughts

I wish we could get some of our lawmakers to think about such things. Peak oil and oil prices is a much bigger crisis than social security.

[Ian David]

2. Thanks. Things are becoming critical.

This will make things especially difficult for those of us who are "left behind" when the Republicans are Raptured.

[dutchdoctor]

3. some good ideas...

but wouldn't it be much easier to tax the gas itself? Say double the price of gas? It would still be cheaper than gas in Europe. That way the price you pay is directly related to the amount of CO2 you emit, regardless of whether you drive often in a small car or drive less in a big car.

I don't know what you mean when you say "liberate oxygen out of the water". Are you referring to the oxygen that forms when water is elecrolysed to create hydrogen? In that case you're up for a disappointment: When the hydrogen is burnt the exact same amount of oxygen is used too. It's a circle.

[NationalEnquirer]

4. Exactly! Taxing MPG is not that great of an idea.

Because MPG figures aren't that accurate, and depend alot on how people drive.
The only way to tax fuel consumption is to... tax fuel consumption!