Copyright 1999 Journal Sentinel Inc.
Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel
December 18, 1999, Saturday Waukesha
SECTION: aukesha Pg. 2
LENGTH: 349 words
HEADLINE:
Drivers of gas-guzzlers should pay special tax
BODY:
I think the government needs to look at the increasingly large population of
sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks and minivans on Wisconsin's roads for some
of the answers to the pollution and road issues.
Large vehicles such as
the Lincoln Navigator and Chevy Suburban are lucky to get 15 miles per gallon.
My car averages around 28 mpg in normal driving. It stands to reason that these
large vehicles use twice as much gas -- and pollute twice as much per mile
traveled -- when compared with cars similar to mine.
The Environmental
Protection Agency estimates that the Lincoln Navigator with two-wheel drive will
create 13.6 tons of greenhouse emissions and use 1,205 gallons of fuel in a year
to go 15,000 miles. The Ford Focus with automatic transmission, on the other
hand, will create 6.6 tons of greenhouse emissions and use 518 gallons of fuel
to go 15,000 miles. The manual transmission Focus does slightly better.
There should be an additional tax on these gas-guzzling,
pollution-spewing SUVs, pickups and minivans. This tax would be charged for all
vehicles that are not used for business that do not meet the Corporate Average
Fuel Economy standard as defined by the federal government.
CAFE for cars is 27.5 mpg and 20.7 mpg for trucks. The farther
the vehicle is from that standard, the more the tax would be.
I think
the tax should be up to 1% of the purchase price of the vehicle per year, with a
cap of $300, for those vehicles that are farthest from the CAFE
standard for that model year. This tax would be collected at the time
the vehicle is purchased and then every year at the time that the registration
is renewed for that vehicle.
In the long run, it should come down to
this: If you are willing to spend more than $30,000 to buy a large SUV and use
it primarily to take one person to and fro, then you should be willing to pitch
in some extra money to help the environment and develop mass transit.
Maybe instead of the Expedition, you could buy a Focus and donate some
extra money to environmental causes.
Jeff Kortsch
Oconomowoc
GRAPHIC: Photo 1
Ford Focus Photo 2
Ford Expedition
LOAD-DATE: December 19,
1999 
