congressman dingell takes my advice and pursues a gas tax

I’d wanted to type that headline for a while now. I’ve dreamed of the day that the Congressman would come to realize that a tax on consumption was the way to go if we really wanted to break free of the stranglehold petroleum had on us. I wrote him letters. I exchanged notes with his people. I held out hope that maybe, just maybe, there was a chance that he, in his position as Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, might one day have the courage to look beyond the short-term concerns of auto industry executives and do the right thing. Well, you can only imagine how happy I was a few days ago, when I read that he was spearheading an initiative to raise the federal gas tax by 50 cents a gallon. Then, of course, I read the small print to find out that he didn’t really mean it. No, he was being completely disingenuous. It was little more than a political stunt. Here, before I dive into the chest-deep political bullshit, is a clip from “Time” on the actual content of his proposal:

….(It) would boost the federal gasoline tax by 50 cents a gallon… and establish a “double digit” tax on each ton of carbon dioxide emissions. The federal tax on a gallon of gas is now 18.4 cents and has not risen in 14 years…

Now for the bullshit. According to Dingell, he was just doing it to make a point. He wanted to demonstrate that Americans wouldn’t stand for a significant tax on gas. So, instead of stepping forward like a real leader would during a time of crisis and working to build consensus around a plan that might see us transition away from oil, he decided to use the idea of a gas tax as a political hand grenade to scuttle the legitimate efforts of others… I try to keep a fairly open mind about things, and I realize that DIngell is, in part, trying to protect the jobs of what remain of his automotive industry constituents, but I find this absolutely despicable…. You know who likes the maneuver though? The Wall Street Journal.” They think it was a brilliant way for him to derail the discussion in Congress about raising CAFE standards as part of the new energy bill. Here’s a clip:

This week’s prize for honest liberalism goes to Michigan’s John Dingell, who is having fun with his fellow Democrats while also making a useful point about the politics of global warming. The venerable Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee–first elected in 1955–has announced that he plans to introduce as early as this week a new tax on carbon emissions.

Now, that’s the way to clear a Capitol Hill hearing room. Americans are already miffed at paying $3 a gallon for gasoline, a fact that has the Members assailing oil companies on a daily basis. So the last thing Democrats seeking re-election want to do is pile on another dollar or two a gallon in taxes–especially in the name of “saving the planet” from the speculative danger of global warming 50 or 100 years from now. Their voters have to deal with the more immediate danger of missing the mortgage payment.

Mr. Dingell knows all this. His point is to force his colleagues–and the voters–to be more honest about the cost of their global-warming posturing. It’s one thing to pay 100 bucks to hear Madonna at the “Live Earth” concert, or impress your girlfriend by wearing an “I reduced my carbon footprint” T-shirt. It’s quite another to accept that energy prices would have to rise by many multiples to make even a degree’s worth of difference to the world’s climate. “I sincerely doubt that the American people will be willing to pay what this is really going to cost them,” Mr. Dingell said on C-SPAN last week….

Regarding such a tax, Democrats already have some hard political experience. In 1993, Vice President Al Gore convinced Bill Clinton to propose an energy tax on BTU (British thermal units) usage. That would have added about 12 cents a gallon to the price of gas. House Democrats walked the plank and passed it, only to have Senate Democrats kill it. As much as anything else, that vote cost Democrats control of the House in 1994. Now Mr. Gore has embraced the carbon tax once again–though we still haven’t heard him endorse a direct tax on gas or consumers…

If Congressional Democrats are really serious about global warming, they’d nonetheless have the courage of their professed convictions: Take the Dingell honesty test and vote to raise carbon taxes. We suspect along with Mr. Dingell, however, that keeping Senate and House seats is going to trump saving the planet…

They’re probably right, of course. Few will rally around the phony flag that Dingell has hoisted. Maybe, if he’d taken the floor of the House and said something inspirational, they might have, but he didn’t. He didn’t make the case passionately. He admitted to it being a stunt, essentially taunting his fellow Congressman to bite at the career-ending bait… Here’s a clip from the Associated Press:

…Dingell is under pressure from Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to put forward a bill on climate change this fall. He is counting on his proposal being unpopular to make a statement.

“I will be introducing in the next little bit a carbon tax bill, just to sort of see how people really feel about this,” he said. “When you see the criticism I get, I think you’ll see the answer to your question.”

Personally, I’d love to see it pass. It’s not what he’s expecting, but maybe the best thing to do is to rally around him like a hero. I’d love to inundate Dingell’s office with letters of appreciation, thanking him for having the balls to do the right thing. But, it’ll probably play out just like he’s betting it will. Everyone will back away from it, it’ll wither on the vine, and no one will have the political courage to come forward for another decade to do what has to be done.