Will increasing gas prices in the US reduce vehicle emissions?

Question

Suppose gas prices were 7dollars per gallon in the US. Most people would probably drive less and less people would be bulky vehicles like SUVs. Is it a good idea to increase gas prices? Obviously people at the lower end of the economy like me would be effected more greatly than people on the higher end.

Answer 1

Yes I believe so !!!

Answer 2

Good question. The answer is: maybe. High gas prices in Europe don't seem to have had much of an effect on upper class individuals because it represents a smaller chunk of their budget. There is some evidence that higher gas prices have an effect here at home. The growth in gas demand actually slowed after Katrina, presumably due to high prices. An immediate, large increase in gas prices would obviously be unfair to the poor, so that would have to be taken into account. Over the longer term it would definitely cut our gasoline use because fewer of us could afford to buy a gas guzzler "just because". People would ditch their Suburbans and Tahos and buy cars and more sensibly sized SUVs. If a gas tax were used to subsidize public transportation it might be more equitable. A big help would be if our towns and cities were designed for people instead of cars. Then we wouldn't really need to drive. There is evidence that cheap gas encourages urban sprawl, leading to economic dependence on cheap gas for continued prosperity. We're starting to see real estate trends in this direction, i.e. affluent people moving back into city cores.

I'm in grad school and rent a house close enough to school that my gas guzzling pickup has become more of a driveway ornament then a method of getting around. Not driving is really liberating. I've saved at least 1000 bucks on gas, parking, maintenance. Plus, I'm healthier. I'm almost to the point where driving is an annoyance.

Answer 3

Just about everything that moves and many products using man-made materials use crude oil products of some kind. If fuel costs escalated beyond the so-called elasticity of fuel, demand would slack off.

In which case, total revenue (TR) would begin to diminish, which is a sure sign the breaking point in fuel elasticity was reached. That is, even if the petroleum industry charged more per unit (e.g., gallon), TR would continue to dimish because more and more people would be priced out of the market.

From an environmental POV, that would be a good thing because fewer vehicle miles would be logged and the total emissions, all other things equal, would go down. But, and this is a BIG BUT, all the additional costs for fuel would be passed on to the consumer. That's the only way fuel using industry could continue to make a profit and survive.

What we would have is a domino effect. Fuel prices go up, which causes heating, energy, and transportation costs to go up, which causes goods and services production costs to go up, which causes wholesale prices to go up, and, finally, which causes consumer retail prices to go up. So not only are we paying more at the pump, we are also paying more just about everywhere else.

In the late 1970's, when the oil embargo was imposed, the resulting higher costs for oil and its products resulted in double-digit inflation rates. And despite lower emissions into the atmosphere, $7 per gallon at the pump could reestablish similar double digit inflation rates.

Retired and other people on fixed incomes would be squeezed out as consumers; that would further impact retailers who would need to raise prices even more to maintain total revenues and cover expenses. But eventually that would fail because the elasticity point would be exceeded; TR's would drop and bankruptcies would begin.

There are a lot of other nasty things that can happen when fuel is overpriced. But you get the point, raising prices to lower emissions is not a good idea.

Answer 4

The answer is yes.. increasing gas prices will reduce US vehicle emissions -- simply because there will be less miles driven and presumably we will drive more efficient cars.

However, this will come at a price. Currently the US economy is dependent on cheap gas prices and it will cause a lot of pain if gas prices increase quickly.

Europe started to heavily tax gasoline a long time ago and has had artificially high gasoline prices for years. Even then it took years for them to build/maintain an efficient system of transportation and mass transit (rail mostly). Further, cars and the convenience of personal automobiles are still a big draw for people in Europe regardless of the price.

Overall Europe is a lot smaller than the US so rail and mass transit make a lot more sense. In the US we essentially abandoned our inter-city railroad systems. Granted, we still have some railroads but they are used for non-time sensitive bulk hauling and our intercity passenger rail is essentially defunct (look at Amtrack and the millions in subsidies it recieves from the US government).

For hauling goods rail is very efficient, however, it tends to be much slower than trucks and it does not allow a lot of convenience -- to get away from a fixed rail line things need to be loaded onto a truck and for perishables (food) well. . . In the US the distances between cities is much larger and things need to move over much longer distances. Rebuilding the thousands of miles of railroad needed to have an efficient inter-city transit system will cost a lot of money.

Many of our major metropolitan cities do not have mass transit systems. Where they are people do not use them and they are heavily subsidized. The reasoning: mass transit is less efficient time-wise for people and much less convenient than personal automobiles.

It will take a long time to revamp our economy to make high gas prices palatable for most of us. We will all have to make sacrifices

Answer 5

The principle is right, but your execution would be disasterous. Better to let the market dictate when and how we convert to methanol. Try jumping the price up like that and no one will have TIME to build the alternative infrastructure. Do YOU have a methanol generator in your backyard? Do YOU have enough switchgrass planted NOW to run your car? Then don't be ridiculous. It'll happen as the technology appears AND people get tired of gas at $3.65 per gallon. That's right. We're there NOW.

Answer 6

Bad idea. Gas regulates everything else. Food, services, etc. gas isn't separated from the economy, its the foundation for it. The cost of transporting ANYTHING would go up and since we city people don't have our own "farmer's market" that means our living expenses would skyrocket, cause a lot of employers to lay off their employees because they cannot afford their salary.

On the other hand, it certainly would cut down on emissions, but at a price. I guess you just need to ask yourself if the price is too high.

Answer 7

Increasing gas prices in the US will not decrease emmisions.It will just have people spend more on gas. To decrease emmissions.....There must be less driving. When Americans learn this.......Then the problem will be solved. I wouldnt count on that happening though.As we have become a very spoiled society. I say this with a question to you. Think about how much peoples driving is for nothing at all-To driving that is absolutly essential? One more thing for you to think about......Cars have been driven for over a hundred years. Is the air really any different. Be aware of special intrest groups scare tatics

Answer 8

They have already done this in Europe. Because of taxes their fuel is usually 2 - 3 times higher than ours. Because of their high prices you see very few large vehicles. They also tend to have better mass transit than the USA. Having experienced morning rush hour in Paris I can say that there are a lot of people that drive. There are also lots that use 2 wheel transportation of various forms.

Answer 9

This emmission problem can be solved by buying a moped instead of powerful air pollution emitting eyesore like a big truck. Also, if congress passed a law that nobody in America would be allowed to own a gas gussling truck unless they used it primarily for business or farming purposes this country would be in a lot better shape. Finally, get rid of every air polluting school bus in america and make the kids walk to school. Maybe they'd be doing the country a favor by getting themselves in better shape.

Answer 10

Increasing gas prices are already creating havoc on the economy...we don't need anymore of that. However, I do think people need to stop driving gas-guzzling SUVs....that would reduce emissions significantly.

Answer 11

If gas goes to $7 we will suffer another Great Depression, the economy will tank & emissions will definitely drop because of reduced economic activity. No one will have any money to buy anything else except the wealthy!