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Originally Posted by jamesqf
Not terrorist, jihadist. Think about the purpose, rather than the tactics - then maybe you start to wonder whether there's all that much difference between so-called "terrorists", and the official military of many oil-exporting countries.
Then you have to remember that oil is oil, and oil's bought and sold in a world market. The fact that much of the oil the US uses actually comes from Canada or Venezuela, while most of Europe's comes from the Arab world, is just because the shipping distances are shorter that way. US consumption still props up the world price,
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Good points. I believe the aphorism is "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter."
The guys on Car Talk a couple of weeks ago suggested a 50 cent per gallon federal gas tax. According to them, it would drive people back toward conservation (I've noticed that freeway speeds are back up to where they were before the spike), and would generate $100 billion per year that could be put into alternative energy development and research. I would go even further and say that you could peg gasoline at a minimum of, say, $2.50 per gallon without hurting people too badly (maybe below a certain income level, people could apply for an offsetting tax credit). At the current California price of about $1.75/gallon, that would generate about $150 billion per year.
Just a thought.