Members of the Cult of Climastrology keep telling us that Doing Something about ‘climate change’ won’t affect our lives
Governors eye regional gas tax to fund transition from fossil fuels
Governors from several northeastern and mid-Atlantic states may have found a way to reduce pollution from cars and trucks and buck the Trump administration, which is trying to weaken auto emissions standards and gut efforts to curb climate change.
Under a regional cap-and-trade plan that a dozen states still are developing, drivers would pay more at the pump through higher prices for gas and diesel. The revenue would be invested in mass transit, electric-vehicle charging and other transportation infrastructure. Republican and Democratic governors and state lawmakers will have to decide whether to back the plan to address the largest source of carbon emissions — and pass on the costs to consumers in what opponents of the proposal are already calling a gas tax.
The coalition of a dozen states and the District of Columbia is hammering out a draft agreement to cap carbon emissions from gasoline and diesel, charging for the emissions and gradually lowering the limit over roughly a decade. The program is modeled on the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which has reduced emissions in the power sector for several of the states mulling the similar program for vehicles.
The states engaged in the plan, called the Transportation and Climate Initiative, are Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, New York, Maine and New Hampshire. Eight are led by Democratic governors; four have Republicans.
Obviously, it won’t be direct taxation at the pump: it will be rising prices for all goods and services, since grocery stores, clothing stores, plumbers, carpenters, delivery drives, etc, will be paying more for fuel, so, they will pass the costs along. It all starts to add up.
But, Warmists won’t be complaining, right? This is what they wanted, right?
Will these same governors give up their own use of fossil fuels, and restrict the use of fossil fuels for the operation of state government?
I’m old enough to remember when service stations had the tax amount in a sticker on the front of the pumps. I wonder why we don’t see that anymore?