Neither wars nor regulatory legislation seem to have produced long term solutions to our ever increasing demand for oil or more specifically gasoline. As with so many things, it comes down to simple economics. How can we make a shift away from gasoline and to alternative energy sources both economically and politically attractive?

A long term tax structure to discourage the use of gasoline would be both simple and viable. How about a 5 cent per gallon tax which increases annually by 5 cents until it reaches 25 cents and then is increased annually by 10 cents to a maximum of $1.95 over a total period of 22 years? A tax structure such as this should discourage the long term use of gasoline in inefficient vehicles and make alternative energy sources more viable.

That’s interesting, but why not faster and /or higher? Because of economic and political considerations; for example, the SUV owner of today is part of a huge and potentially powerful political special interest group. They might be a bit annoyed that their newly purchased $35,000 vehicle is going to cost twice as much to run as anticipated. But that vehicle of today will probably be recycled into a more energy friendly beast before half of this gas tax is in place.

And how about corporate America, could they accept such an approach? The car manufacturers would have plenty of time to change gears into more efficient and alternative energy vehicles prior to the gasoline tax maturing toward its higher levels. The oil companies could become leaders in producing and distributing alternative energy products. The innovative companies of the world could and would make money, which is OK if we all get where we want to go, plus new jobs and economic well - being will be created along the way.

Now for the fun part, what do we do with the tax dollars? Thirty percent could be divided equally between every student pursuing an education beyond high school – politically, that would be popular and investing in our future is the right thing to do. Thirty percent could go toward insuring health care for everyone, which would be the popular and the right thing to do. Twenty percent could be put into research grants to both the public and private sectors that could lead to innovations we cannot today imagine. Oh, and discoveries funded by these grants would all be in the public domain and that would be the right thing to do. And the last twenty percent would go to the people of the world, who need help to live a better life, and that is the right thing to do.

The above is simple and the process could start tomorrow. It follows what so many of our politicians have already endorsed: Independence from foreign oil, Better education (our "Education President"), Affordable and accessible healthcare, Innovation to create a better world, and Helping Humanity everywhere!

John Van Horn Copyright 2003