Sullivan recommends "Inconvenient Truth"

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Sullivan recommends Gore's movie. He has some objections, though. He thinks Gore should have pushed for an increased gas tax. While I like the incentives such a tax would set up (lower consumption, make alternative energy sources more profitable), I don't like the fact that it would probably be a very regressive tax (i.e. hitting the poor proportionally harder than the rich). If the regressiveness of a gas tax could be offset by packaging it with other changes in the tax code, I'd be more enthusiastic about it.

My objections to the movie were more triggered by the Al Gore "bio-porn" about growing up on a farm (wasn't his father a Senator, too?), about not farming tobacco after a relative died of lung cancer, etc. I thought those parts were akward and phony, and did nothing to support the central thesis of the movie. They felt like political puff pieces, and I felt their presence undermined the strength of the arguments a bit. Al Gore is at his best when he's not being a politician.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Sullivan supports (or at least was enthusiastic about) the idea proposed by Gregory Mankiw that we increase the gas tax while offsetting other taxes such as FICA. I'm a fiscal conservative like Andrew and I support the idea of raising the gas tax as long as it remains tax neutral for your "average" American.

In essence for the short term it would reduce taxes for those that use less gasoline, not financially impact those that use the average amount and increase taxes on those that consume more than their "fair" share. However, in the long term, it would change the financial dynamics of our energy use/policies and push more people to conserve by purchasing more efficient vehicles.

I would hope more progressives would look into this idea and discuss it. Although it was proposed by a conservative I think it is a sound green policy that would greatly benefit us all. The silence on the left on this one indeed has me puzzled.
10:37 PM, July 25, 2006
Zachary Drake said…
Sounds like a good idea to me. I like market incentives, too. In my ideal world, the cost of everything would be its "environmentally neutral" cost, i.e. the cost would factor in all the production and disposal costs, and the environmental impact of the product. Right now, I think a lot of costs are "externalized" to the environment: something may look cheap, but we pay for it with global warming.

I do hope this is something progressives can get behind.

Thanks for stopping by with your thoughtful comments. Internal Monologue appreciates it!
8:56 AM, July 28, 2006
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