Electoral Politics Cancel Out Brave Calls to Raise Gas Tax

That is the charge that advocates of tougher CAFE rules have made against Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), a legendary defender of the domestic automobile industry who has had the temerity to call for a carbon tax to help curb America's wanton consumption of oil.

Keep in mind that former vice president Al Gore has called for a similar tax, as has auto industry stalwart Michael J. Jackson, the chairman and chief executive of AutoNation, America's largest auto retail group.

But Gore, whose environmental credentials are buttressed by an Academy Award for his film, "An Inconvenient Truth," isn't running for office. Jackson is an industry maverick who believes that leadership means risking everything for the greater good, which, of course, means he has no chance of ever making it in electoral politics. And Dingell is seen as a strategically wise owl out to protect his nest of auto companies from a CAFE increase by having the gumption to ask consumers to help pay for it.

It is a curious logic, one supported by many seemingly objective studies, one of the latest of which was published by the University of California Energy Institute. In summary, the study published this summer says that American consumers are "appearing significantly less responsive to gasoline prices now than 25 years ago."

As a result, the study says that technologies and policies, such as CAFE, may be what are needed to significantly reduce gasoline consumption.

The House is likely to buy that line in its upcoming energy policy considerations. But I join Dingell, Gore and Jackson in rejecting it, because it just does not make any sense.

CAFE has been around since 1975. It brought about technical increases in fuel efficiency and thereby helped to reduce the overall cost of driving. Lower driving costs mated to the cheapest gasoline in the developed world yielded increased vehicle miles traveled and increased consumer demand for more horsepower and bigger vehicles -- all of which led to big annual increases in gasoline consumed. Other than Dingell's brave call for a carbon tax, what is in the House or Senate bills to sideswipe that trend?

There's nothing.

That means we are likely to get another go-nowhere energy conservation rule. That being the case, it would be cheaper for all of us if Congress stayed on vacation and, at least, reduced the consumption of energy on Capitol Hill.