On 1 Oct 2001, at 11:05, Eric Murray wrote:
On Mon, Oct 01, 2001 at 09:55:34AM -0500, Harmon Seaver wrote:
Besides which, the true cost of gasoline at the pump would be $10-15 @ gallon without all the gov't subsidies to the oil industry.
The study says $5.60 to $15.14, not $10-15.
A quick glance find some glaring errors--
-it completely ignores taxes paid by the oil industry.
-under Environmental Health and social costs they count: "noise pollution ($6 to $12 billion), and improper disposal of batteries, tires, engine fluids, and junked cars ($4.4 billion) also add to the environmental consequences wrought by automobiles."
It's quite a stretch to claim those as costs of oil. We'd have significant costs for those kind of items even if we all used electric cars or even horse and buggy. Although I suppose that unlike a car's engine, when your horse fails, you can eat it.
Not to mention things like "travel delays due to road congestion ($46.5 to $174.6 billion)," which not only would still exist with electric cars, but is a cost ALREADY paid by automobile users. To call something like that a "hidden subsidy of the oil industry" should be enough to get this "study" rejected by a reesponsible reviewer. George
Eric