Fuel No Longer Business Deductable

Although I generally support initiatives to reduce energy use, I think this proposal would be a mistake.

First, it will take some years before hybrid production can be ramped up to meet the demand this would cause. Second, fleets have different needs. Not all kinds of vehicles will be available in hybrid styles for some years. This will lead, inevitably, to unfair application of the law of a maze of special exemptions that will make the initiative meaningless. Third, why anoint hybrid technology this way? Why not just set fleet mpg targets and let the other market forces sort out how to achieve them?

I'd just as soon see the gas tax raised to something punitive and made deductible. Or a per barrel tax (Krugman described this) that sets a floor for oil prices and raises automatically with the spot price.

We don't make very good choices in transportation and energy policy. Around here, we've blown close to a billion bucks on a single Light Rail Transit line. It uses up valuable street space, has frequent accidents with passenger vehicles and, in spite of the nearly-a-billion bucks spent, I can neither get to work (3 miles) by public transportation in less than 1.5 hours, nor can lower-income people come to my inner-ring suburb by public transportation to take jobs. But LRT is sexy, so that's what we get.

How many hybrid busses could we buy for a billion dollars?