America needs therapy

[Eric Murray]

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.
> 
> http://www.icta.org/projects/trans/rlprexsm.htm

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.


Eric