Over the past few years, we’ve talked quite a bit here on this site about the need for a significant gas tax that would both influence consumer behavior, and fund mass transportation projects. Well, it seems as though the conversation has finally made the leap from the backwaters of the internet to the pages of the United States paper of record, the New York Times. The following comes from an editorial that ran just before the end of the year.

…President-elect Barack Obama and the Democrats in Congress seem to have a clear vision of the auto industry they think the country needs. It must be financially self-sufficient. It also must be capable of producing highly fuel-efficient, next-generation vehicles that can help the nation cope with climate change and finite supplies of oil.

Yet for all the conditions attached to it, the multibillion-dollar aid package for Detroit’s carmakers approved by the White House (with Mr. Obama’s support) fails to address one crucial question: Who will buy all the fuel-efficient cars that Detroit carmakers are supposed to make?

The danger is that too few will, especially if gasoline prices remain low. Therefore, it might be time for the president-elect and Congress to think seriously about imposing a gas tax or similar levy to keep gas prices up after the economy recovers from recession.

Americans did not buy enormous gas guzzlers just because Detroit marketed them relentlessly. They bought them because they wanted big cars — and because gas was cheap. If gas stays cheap, Americans would be less inclined to squeeze their families into a lithe fuel-efficient alternative…

The recent infatuation with the Toyota Prius and other fuel-efficient cars could well come to a similar end. It took a gallon of gas at $4.10 to push the share of light trucks down to 45 percent in July. But as gasoline plummeted back to $1.60 a gallon, their share inched back up to 49 percent of auto sales in November.

There are several ways to tax gas. One would be to devise a variable consumption tax in such a way that a gallon of unleaded gasoline at the pump would never go below a floor of $4 or $5 (in 2008 dollars), fluctuating to accommodate changing oil prices and other costs. Robert Lawrence, an economist at Harvard, proposes a variable tariff on imported oil to achieve the same effect and also to stimulate the development of domestic energy sources.

In both cases, the fuel taxes could be offset with tax credits to protect vulnerable segments of the population…

It’s all stuff that we’ve talked about before, but it seems as though now some kind of popular consensus is forming. I know the economy sucks, and that conventional wisdom is that advocating for a gas tax, even in the best of economic climates, is political suicide, but maybe Americans are ready to accept the truth. Maybe we’re ready to admit to ourselves that the cheap oil is running out, and that, with the negative effects of global warming growing worse by the day, we don’t have the luxury to continue on in the manner to which we’ve become accustomed. Maybe we’re finally ready to face reality like adults. At least that’s what I’m hoping.

And, for what it’s worth the editorial board wasn’t alone in their recommendation. New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman agreed. Following is a quote from his recent piece on the gas tax.

…That is why I believe the second biggest decision Barack Obama has to make — the first is deciding the size of the stimulus — is whether to increase the federal gasoline tax or impose an economy-wide carbon tax. Best I can tell, the Obama team has no intention of doing either at this time. I understand why. Raising taxes in a recession is a no-no. But I’ve wracked my brain trying to think of ways to retool America around clean-power technologies without a price signal — i.e., a tax — and there are no effective ones. (Toughening energy-effiency regulations alone won’t do it.) Without a higher gas tax or carbon tax, Obama will lack the leverage to drive critical pieces of his foreign and domestic agendas…

Which one of these things wouldn’t we want? A gasoline tax “is not just win-win; it’s win, win, win, win, win,” says the Johns Hopkins author and foreign policy specialist Michael Mandelbaum. “A gasoline tax would do more for American prosperity and strength than any other measure Obama could propose.”

I know it’s hard, but we have got to stop “taking off the table” the tool that would add leverage to everything we want to do at home and abroad. We’ve done that for three decades, and we know with absolute certainty how the play ends — with an America that is less innovative, less wealthy, less respected and less powerful…

And, it’s not as though we haven’t already been there. We’ve paid $4 a gallon at the pump before. Yes, it sucked. And, yes, we had to change our lives a bit as a result of it, but, by and large, we managed. And I suspect that we could do it again, especially if measures were taken to ensure that the most vulnerable among us weren’t disproportionately affected. The truth is, we were making real progress in mid 2008, when gas broke the $4 per gallon mark, and we can’t afford to lose that momentum now that it’s temporarily dropped.

He’s still not saying a lot about what his economic stimulus package will look like when it’s presented to Congress, but President-elect Obama added a bit more meat today, when he said, during his weekly address (video above), that the plan would focus on the following five areas (via CNN):

• double renewable energy production and make public buildings more energy efficient
• rebuild crumbling roads, bridges and schools
• computerize the health care system
• modernize classrooms, labs and libraries
• provide tax breaks to American workers

I’m not sure what he has in mind when he says “computerize the health care system", but I guess it makes sense that he would try to marry-up healthcare reform and this stimulus project, though. Using one to fund the other is probably a good idea.

And I’m surprised that he left out the updated of the electrical grid. It seems to me that “smart grid” should be in there somewhere.

Here’s more from CNN.

…Obama’s advisers and lawmakers have said they expect his legislation to provide increased aid to states to pay for Medicaid, as well as a boost to unemployment benefits and food stamps. However, he didn’t mention it in his address on Saturday.

Obama’s video address did not attach an estimated price tag to his proposal, but his advisers have said publicly they expect the size of the spending package to range between $675 billion and $775 billion.

Many economists have called for stimulus spending to approach or even exceed $1 trillion if the government expects to successfully beat back one of the deepest downturns in more than two generations…

This guy I kind of know has a new Porsche… Well, I’m proud to say, that he and I raced down Huron River Drive this morning, and my little Honda Civic Hybrid beat him handily. I was listening to the Scorpions, which helped. And then there was the fact that he didn’t know that we were racing. Still, I feel good about it.

I’ve got a few dozen serious things I’d like to write about tonight, but I can’t seem to summon up the attention span necessary to assess the probability of a gas tax in Oregon, or research the energy historically output by the dams along the Huron River. So, instead, I’ll just ramble for a little while, until I either fall asleep or get distracted by a shiny object.

And this is completely unrelated, but yesterday, as I was straightening up the Laura Ingalls Wilder section of our bookshelf, I saw “The Long Winter,” and wondered – as I often do – what the title would be if it were adapted for the adult cinema. Usually, I can come up with a clear, definitive winner, but, this time, I was torn… Would it be “The Schlong Winter,” or “The Long Wiener”? Really, I can’t decide.

Today – to change subjects radically yet again - I cooked my ass off. (I could have tied this paragraph to the one above by saying that I “cooked my schlong off,” but I respect all of you too much to do that.) Yesterday I hit about a half-dozen grocery stores, amassing a huge and diverse stockpile of vittles - banana leaves, mustard greens, pork butt, and all kinds of great stuff - and today I cooked them all down into one enormous meal. Among other things, we had black-eyed peas, greens, vegan cornbread, and puerco pibil, a slow-roasted pork dish I first learned of from director Robert Rodriguez, on the DVD for his film Once Upon A Time in Mexico … Here, thanks to miracle of YouTube, is Rodriguez showing you how to make the dish himself.

I’ve wanted to make it for at least 5 years now, and today was the day I finally got up off my grub-white ass and actually did it… And it was awesome.

So far, 2009 is going pretty well.

And, no, it doesn’t make a great deal of sense to have vegan cornbread with pork butt, but I’m not a man that cares much for convention.

Speaking of men who don’t care much for the norms of society, my friend Jeff, the man behind the insanely popular website, The West Virginia Surf Report, just wrote to tell me that I started off 2009 by being incarcerated for something.

And, no, it’s not me. I spell my middle name “Alan,” and I’m a damn site jowlier. It could be a relative, though. My people on the Maynard side, I’m told, come from West Virginia. A more interesting question from my perspective, however, is this. Why is Jeff perusing a West Virginia prison intake site? I wonder if maybe he’s looking for a friend. Could it be that he’s decided that an imprisoned Mark Maynard could give him all the attention he desires, without the possibility of having to maybe meet, shake hands, or - God forbid - hug one day?

[Tonight’s post was written while listening to one of my favorite records.]

Last summer, I mentioned something here about Rob Hopkins and his Transition Town sustainability initiative in Europe. And, since then, a lot has happened. Most notably for us in the U.S., a number of North American towns, like Boulder, Colorado, have started the process of becoming “transition certified,” which essentially means that they’ve set out on the difficult task of restructuring their communities from top-to-bottom so as not to unravel when the cheap oil spigot is cut off. And, I’m happy to say, that at least in some little way, the communities of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti have also initiated the process. In fact, an official, local, two-day Transition Town training session – the first such training in the Midwest – is set to take place here in a few weeks. Following is an overview from my friend, and fellow Ypsi 2020 Task Force member, Lisa Bashert.

There will be a Training For Transition in Ann Arbor on Jan 31-Feb 1, 2009. It’s the first training in the Midwest on the concept of Transition Towns, an idea that is mushrooming throughout the UK, Australia, Europe and even Japan. The two-day training costs $200 and will take place at Rudolf Steiner High School, 2230 Pontiac Trail, Ann Arbor, MI 48105. The trainers are Michael Brownlee and Lynette Marie Hanthorn of Transition Boulder County, one of the first Transition Initiatives in the USA. For more information and to register, click here.

The basic idea behind Transition Towns is that we need to find an effective, meaningful and LOCAL response to the twin challenges facing us today: global warming and oil depletion, AKA “Peak Oil.” Climate change is something more people are beginning to understand. The term Peak Oil expresses the concept that we are at or nearly at the global peak production of oil and also natural gas. So, we are looking at a future where we not only need to reduce our carbon emissions to keep the climate stable, but ALSO there’s going to be a decreasing oil supply. And, in a culture that is so completely dependent on oil, we need to really rethink the way that our society works. So that’s the background and within that context, Transition Towns says that we can’t wait for national governments to take action, we can’t wait for international protocols, there’s not much we can do as individuals, so we need a local level of response. We need communities to be coming together and thinking through how we can solve the problems of food production, transportation, housing, health care, economics and livelihood, basic stuff about living, in a way that’s no longer dependent on an globalized oil-based structure.

Hopefully our mayors, city council members and representatives from our city planning departments will be in attendance… Tell you what – if you have a minute, why don’t you send a link to this post on to an elected official or two, and ask them to participate.

And, here, if you aren’t familiar with Hopkins’ work, is a good video interview in which he lays out much of the program and explains why immediate, comprehensive change is necessary.

[Also of interest to local sustainability folks, members of the Washtenaw/West Wayne MOSES organization will be meeting Thursday, January 8, at 6:00 PM in Ypsilanti to discuss their community organizing activities around the issue of public transportation. The meeting will be held at the First Congregational UCC (218 N. Adams), and visitors are welcome.]

As I’ve mentioned here before, the good folks at Pfizer, before packing up their Global R&D facility and leaving Ann Arbor for good, gave $1 million dollars to the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation with the stipulation that it be spent within one year’s time on high-impact projects. After giving the issue quite a bit of thought, and meeting with a great number of people knowledgeable about the needs of the community, the board of the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation announced that they would primarily be looking to fund opportunities in Arts and Culture and Early Childhood Development. And, most importantly for us, they said that they would focus on Ypsilanti.

Some of the funds, no doubt, have clearly already been set aside by this point for various projects, but, just before Christmas, the board announced that $200,000 was still available, and that they were going to use it to fund what they’re calling Big Idea grants, which could range anywhere between $50,000 and $200,000. (It’s conceivable that one organization will get the entire $200,000, but it seems more likely that the board will award 4 groups $50,000 each, or something along those lines.)

My first thought, of course, was that our bike-powered film project would be a great candidate, but, as I couldn’t even begin to imagine how we’d spend $50,000, when the current budget comes in at less that $3,000, I went back to the drawing board. What I’ve come up with in its place is still a little rough, but, seeing as how the deadline for submissions is February 4, I thought that I’d throw it out here to get your feedback.

Here’s the idea in a nutshell… We take a small plot of land in Ypsi (ideally on the Water Street property), stack it full of shipping containers, and begin leasing space to artists and entrepreneurs at the subsidized rate of $1 per square foot. Maybe, if we’re lucky, we could even pull the folks from Gallery 555 back from Detroit to manage the space. (They’re currently looking for a new home.) As I understand it, retired shipping containers can be had for something on the order of $1,250 dollars a piece. They would, of course, need to be insulated and made habitable, but I imagine that $75,000 from the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation could go a long way, especially if a good portion of the architecture and building costs were donated.

As we all know, Ypsi is well positioned to be a thriving center of artistic activity. (It’s already starting.) A high-profile space like the one I’m imagining would not only advance that cause, bringing more young, enthusiastic people with ideas here to Ypsilanti, but, if we were to do it on Water Street, it would be a great shot in the arm to spur on further development. My guess – and I’m pretty sure that I’m right – is that developers would rather build in a neighborhood featuring a funky, innovative, multi-level, green artists’ colony running on solar than, say, a Burger King or a strip mall. So, yeah, I’m suggesting that the City sell us an acre or two of land cheap contingent on our raising the money, drafting plans and making something happen. And, yes, I know it’s a gamble, but I for one would rather gamble on a few dozen artists and a couple of cool shops than on a Burger King.

So, what’s your big idea?

OK, it’s the first of the month, and you know what that means - a new coupon from MM.com. This month, it’s the Corner Brewery, where our friends are offering a half-price beer for every one bought at the regular price. So, if you’ve been meaning to come to Ypsi and check out the Brewery, now’s the perfect time. Just print the coupon, grab your jacket, and jump on one of the cool buses headed toward Ypsi City.

I have my doubts as to how real this is, but someone just sent me a link to a discussion board where folks are talking about a 1996 Engorgement Study supposedly conducted at the University of Georgia. I think the following quote is probably the best thing I’ve read in 2008.

Both groups showed an overall increase in penis circumference while watching all three categories of sexually explicit material. But the only instance where there was a significant difference in engorgement between the homophobes and non-homophobes was during the homosexual-male porn. The homophobic males showed significantly more engorgement while watching two men go at it than the non-homophobic males.

Like I said, I suspect it’s not true, but I just love the idea of homophobes having blood-flow monitors hooked to their wieners and then subjected to hardcore videos of gay sex. I’d love to see documentary footage of that.

And when I say that I don’t believe it, I just mean that I doubt that it happened. I don’t doubt for a moment, however, that, if such a test did take place, that homophobic men would trigger the bonerometer within seconds of being shown men playing with each other’s wieners.

[This post was brought to you by Fred Phelps, Rick Santorum, and members of the 700 Club everywhere.]

The folks at the Dreamland Theater are now 4 hours into their 24-hour puppet show marathon. The footage shown here was taken about 3 hours into the masochistic spectacle of puppetry endurance. I’m sorry the video so shaky, but I was terrified by the Michigan-shaped ghost and the demon-possessed bag of Funyuns… Anyway, it’s a good show. As best as I can figure, the play is about a young woman in “Ypsilanti City” who, after having her boyfriend arrested, and being fired from her cushy position as City Planner, comes across a filthy magic comb that turns her life around. Her name is Slipley Wondersocks. I can’t remember much else, except for the fact that she won the lottery to the tune of $8 billion, and that urban planners have the job of making stop signs and putting them up. Oh, and that dead people, including Abraham Lincoln, Gertrude Stein, Oscar Wilde, her grandmother, and LL Cool J, keep sending her e-mails, inquiring as to the whereabouts of the magic comb. Anyway, it all seems to be building up to a huge party scene that begins at 9:00 tonight, when the demon realm and the human realm somehow become aligned. So, if you don’t have New Year’s plans, and you like hearing puppets making quite funny local references, come on out to Ypsi and join the party. (The show runs until 12:00 noon tomorrow.)

[Another clip can be found here.]

The most recent flare-up between Israel and the Palestinian territories has been going for four days now. According to recent United Nations reports, 4 Israelis and more than 350 Palestinians have been killed. Of those, it looks like 3 Israelis and 60 Palestinians were civilians. And, to make matters worse, it looks like it’s just the beginning. According to Israel’s Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, this was just “phase one” of the air strikes destined for Gaza.

One of the few people in the U.S. government to suggest that the Israeli response was disproportionate, considering the toll of the Palestinian attacks, was Ohio Congressman Dennis Kuckinch, who said today that the air strikes from Israel in response to Palestinian rocket attacks was “indiscriminate mass violence in violation of international law.”

The specifics can be debated, but general consensus outside of Washington seems to be that Israel has gone to far. In evidence of that, the most viewed picture on the internet today is of a Palestinian apartment building blown to bits in an Israeli air strike. Israel claims to be justified in this particular attack, which they claim was against a Hamas member in the northern Gaza Strip, but it’s clear from the image that many others likely died. The sense I’m getting from jumping around online tonight is that Israel has crossed the line – what with their using kids as human shields and ramming relief boats headed for Gaza. It’s gotten so bad that, even observant Jews are beginning to question their support for Israel.

Unfortunately for us, the folks covering the story here in the sates seem to have “a stunningly superficial knowledge” of the region, the history and the context.