Inevitably when the price of gas rises, drivers cry foul and the call comes to governments to alleviate the pain, in the form of reducing taxes on gas.
However, the idea that governments should lower taxes on gas in response to globally increasing demand outstripping an increasingly unstable supply is a misguided approach that treats the symptom but ignores the cause of the problem: our reliance on oil.
Technologies like hybrids and modern diesels will help us reduce our reliance on oil for our personal transportation, and should be embraced by the public. I drive a Volkswagen TDI and it gets amazing mileage. I average between 900 and 1,000 kilometres per 55L tank. Generally it costs about $45 at today’s prices to fill up.