Editorial "The Gas Tax"

Since the NYTimes continues to publish this insanity, I continue writing letters that they will not publish........

From: Felipe M Pait
Date: 30 December 2008 2:20:19 PM EST
To: letters@nytimes.com
Cc: robert_lawrence@Harvard.Edu
Subject: Editorial "The Gas Tax"

Dears,

You rightly propose a gas tax, something America and the world badly need. Unfortunately, you undermine the argument by suggesting that a gas tax could come in the form of a price floor. A price floor would have disastrous consequences, because US importers would lose all incentive and leverage to negotiate lower crude oil prices. Thus a significant part of the tax would end up not with the US government but with oil exporters, which are involved in most of the sources of instability the world, many in countries run by tyrants and supporters of international terrorism. A simple tax on fossil fuel imports would have no such disadvantage, and would be much welcome from the environmental, geopolitical, and even health points of view.

Sincerely,

Felipe Pait
São Paulo, Brazil

Incidentally, this transatlantic lunacy also has space in FT.com.