We must tax petrol highly in the USA to stop the pollution of the planet

If you donot live in America I suggest one should keep their mouths shut. We may not pay high prices on gas, but believe me most can barely afford to get by in day to day life, because of everything just about being taxed as high as the government can possibly get it. Just in the area I live in we have property tax, car tax, state taxes, federal taxes, gas tax, food tax, heck even on our utility bills we have to pay a school tax, FCC user tax (whatever the heck that is), and excise tax. There's probably more, but those are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head. We Americans aren't really living the "good" life here (with the exception of the overly rich of course). I am getting sick of the world's problems being place expressly on the American's shoulders, when there are other countries that have contributed to pollution and what not over the years.

Yes, its a good idea to raise US fuel tax in an attempt to reduce the consumption of petrol and diesel... BUT... as a brit, where we pay an huge amount of fuel tax - it hasnt stopped the increasing number of cars on our roads. And what would happen to all the taxes raised??? who gets to spend them? will it get spent on green environmentally friendly projects - or will it just be added to the governments pot and spent on wars etc? - if it was spent on researching green fuels, maybe more people would be happy to pay extra.

I Have a question for you since you think everyone in the US should just change cars to ones that don't use gasoline, why don't you buy out one of the major car companies and start making cars that will do this. Offer to trade them out at cost so that people can change to battery operated ones. Most I know don't have a choice in driving. We don't have a public transport around. The hybrid cars that are here are out of most people's price range. The one poster complained about using SUV's and Vans for day to day use and people should have two cars instead. Well for some of us we can't afford to own two cars, one for day to day use and one for the whole family. It would be nice if we could all afford to just change out cars, have multiple ones and not worry but it's not that easy. We have an SUV, it gets decent gas milage. We got it due to the weather here in Florida and how our streets will flood on any given day let alone having to have a walker in the car and other things all the time. So yes for us the SUV is neccessary for day to day use. I do agree we need to find alternative sources of fuel and some companies are looking into it including the US government. However even once they do it will not trade out overnight. Wish it would but unless someone is going to offer to pay for everyone with a car to get a new one it will take time. Maybe we are one of the higher users of gasoline, that could be but we are also a very big country unlike some countries. So our usage should be higher then say that of England. In comparision it should be a good 20 times more at least from the US to England's usage. Trust me we do pay in taxes on fuel. Quiet a bit of taxes actually but just like anything up for sale the more you buy in bulk the cheaper it is. So if the US is buying a lot more then other countries they are going to charge a lower rate.

I think this is not about only the price in a country, but this is more to do with individual habits. This pollution can be controlled only when people will understand that we shoul think seriously about it and do whatever we can do in our own. Some people will never use public transport no question how much the price goes high. And moreover the public transport condition is not good here in USA. This is also a main reason of people using more individual cars. But atleast we can stop using giant SUVs just for day today's use only for one people. When you are going somewher with your family that's ok to use giant SUV or Van.

Well, yes, I personally agree with you. The USA are one of the worst countries in the world, for pollution, and a consumer culture that puts their own needs before the rest of the world, and doesn't seem to care too much for the environment. However, I am sure that many of our American friends here will not agree, and you can't blame them from a personal point of view.

Well I would not consider our gas cheap, but maybe by your standards it is. I would love to be able to take public transportation, but there really is none available where I live. Personally, I do not do much recreational driving and have not seen my parents in about a years, since I can't afford the drive. I have a 9 year old minvan that gets about 24 miles to the gallon, I got that when my son was playing hockey and lacrosse. His hockey sticks were too big to fit in my last car if there was more then 2 people. They did not go in the trunk and Ifrequently drove around his team mates. I resent the implication that I am wasteful and do not care about the environment. I recycle and reuse as much as I can. I don't buy things to throw away, and fix thing when they are broken if at all possible. Please explain to me, why so many of you dislike Americans. We are nice people and we do care

American economy and indrectly or directly global economy is driven by American consumerism. Americans consume more energy (lets not limit this to petrol) than anyother nation on earth. How can mere human survival take precedence over commerce? The next thing is - who will bell the cat? Maybe a president that does tax petroleum product highly will not be able to survive, and he'd provide a good platform for the oppostion to definitely win the next election hands down.

As an American, I would like to politely disagree with you. I don't feel that fuel is cheap here. It may cost much less than in other countries, but according my research from travelling, we also pay much less for other items (coca-cola to name one). Many of us do not live within walking distance to our jobs, family or shopping and we must use some type of transportation. Before you suggest that we use public transportation, that would only work for those who live within larger cities, as public transportation isn't available in all areas. As a whole, Americans do try to conserve fuel. I would venture to guess that there are very few of us who are out driving "just for the sake of driving." WHile I agree that environment issues are of concern, I don't think that taxing fuel is the answer to the problem.

yep I agree with you there. Also there should be global cooperation between all the different countries and jurisdictions on how to reduce our reliance on fuel feasting vehicles. Such as encouraging cycling by building cycle lanes everywhere and giving tax credits if you can prove you have a bike and maintain it.

Yes well in Australia we do pay tax on our petrol and diesel, so I do not understand why the bigger petrol users do not pay more in regards to the petrol and especially for to stop the pollution of our beautiful planet. At least at this time the fuel has come down some more so that people can afford more.

I really agree with you my friend! America should slow down use of petrol products and take some train and some cost effective vehicle for transportation in order to decrease world pollution. The reason behind america's cheap petroleum product is that they have lots of oil depot and stock in which they are not afraid to lower the price in the market that's why they are not so worried with what they contribute world's pollution.

Yeah fuel in the USA is incredibly cheap....and then they complain that it's expensive!! lol...in some places in europe like the uk they pay for a litre what a gallon costs in the USA. They didnt want to sign the Kyoto Protocol, so i don't think that a tax raise is coming up there anytime soon.

Weel, if u r talking abt USA, then u must know tht it hardly cares abt wht is happening outside its boundries, if tht doesnt matter to its intrests, u can take examples of subsidies tht it provides to its farmers, its regulation over global marketing etc, so it's foolish to advise something to USA.

Taxing petrol in the USA will not stop the pollution of the planet, Americans are still going to insist on filling their cars. There are many other things that should be suggested and the worlds pollution problem does not rest on one country. I do not understand what fairness has to do with the price, it is the way that things work currently. There are other parts of the world that are contributing to pollution, the only way to solve this is to hope that each country will do their part. There needs to be other suggestions made, admitly I do not currently have any good ones, but I know that the solution is not to tax a country just because they are not paying as much as others.

well, that is true, but the american policy saves them from the high price of fuel. im not american fans, but that is the fact.