Scholar advocates higher gas prices

November 16, 2009 by Victoria Gonzalez 

Brookings fellow shares opinions on automotive industry

According to one speaker, Americans should be taxed more on harmful practices, like excessive fuel usage.

Brookings Institution senior fellow Pietro Nivola, who holds the Brookings C. Douglas Dillon chair in governance studies, shared his opinions and findings in a lecture titled “The Long and Winding Road: Automotive Fuel Economy and American Politics,” held Thursday evening in the Science and Engineering Building Auditorium.

Nivola talked about high fuel prices, consumption of gasoline and tax issues. He said the United States is not handling the issue of fuel economy as it should.

“The higher the prices of gasoline are, the less driving there will be,” Nivola said. He went on to say that the higher the gas prices, the more fuel efficient people will be.

Nivola said the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 states that the gas and diesel average for all passenger automobiles, including sport utility vehicles and lightweight trucks, should be 35 miles per gallon by 2020. President Barack Obama has since changed the target year to 2016.

Nivola noted that the European plan is to have 50 mpg as a gas and diesel average by 2012.

“It doesn’t take that much to get people to change,” Nivola said, recalling when gasoline was $4 a gallon, which he said prompted people to change from SUVs and trucks to smaller, more efficient cars.

The Corporate Average Fuel Economy program, enacted by Congress in 1975 to reduce energy consumption by increasing the fuel economy of light trucks and cars, was another part of Nivola’s presentation.

Nivola told the audience that with this type of program, it takes 10 years for a whole fleet of the fuel efficient vehicles to be implemented with drivers.

He went on to speak about American living standards, the long-distance geography of the country, its transportation systems and the regulatory rigor of products. Nivola said that the latter two are both stronger in Europe.

Nivola presented a graph of gasoline taxes by country, showing that the U.S. barely taxes their gasoline in comparison to other countries, especially those in Europe.

In closing his lecture, Nivola said that the main goal should be to combat climate change and that there is no need to just focus on gasoline.

He presented the idea of a carbon tax that would tax the consumption of energy.

“I’m not advocating a tax proposal right now, but the country should tax energy,” Nivola said.

He went on to say that the tax system should tax things lawmakers do not want people to engage in, like high energy consumption, and not tax people so much on the things they do want them to do, like investing.

John-Carlos Kuramoto, an audience member and senior majoring in sociology, said that he felt that the lecture was not the most organized one he has attended.

“It was okay, but he didn’t really focus on one specific area,” Kuramoto said.

Thomas Piechota, director of Sustainability and Multidisciplinary Research and associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, thought differently.

“[Nivola] definitely spoke on an interesting issue and gave good information on other countries and their tax methods,” Piechota said.

Piechota also said continuing to bring scholars like Nivola from Brookings to campus is good because it brings a global perspective to UNLV. He said that it also exposes audiences to international perspectives.

“It is good for us to have these people here,” Piechota said, “and [to] have them coming back provides opportunities for faculty and students to start partnerships.”