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Tucson, Arizona | Published: 05.11.2008
Q Most development is car-dependent. Oil prices have increased almost 1,000 percent during the past decade. Where is or how do we find the leadership to invest in an electric multimodal system of mobility before we experience economic collapse?
A Leadership would have to come in the form of a person willing to stand in front of the American people and tell them that to pursue alternative means of transportation they will have to pay more. Europe has an excellent public-transit system because it taxes petroleum at the pump at very high rates. Taxes collected in this fashion are used to support public transit.
Suppose in 1982, just as real oil prices began a 20- year downward spiral, the federal government had imposed a modest series of federal gas tax hikes and plowed the money into research and development for electric or whatever alternative won the race.
Our politicians and many Americans simply don't trust government to do this efficiently, but without the tax and with gas prices falling at that time there was no incentive for the market to create these alternatives.
Now market incentives are being created, but all we have heard recently from the presidential candidates is that we need lower federal taxes on gas to "ease the pain" at the pump.
I share the reader's premise that we have a leadership void here. But in the end, our leaders are a reflection of the willingness of citizens to embrace ideas that can pave the way for the future. It is not clear that there is public political will to do this.
Dennis Hoffman is a professor of economics, director and associate dean of the W.P. Carey School of Business; and director of the Center for Competitiveness and Prosperity Research at Arizona State University.
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