Reducing Gasoline Consumption

Book excerpt: Compares 3 methods of reducing gasoline (gas) consumption: increasing the corp. avg. fuel econ. (CAFE) standards that govern passenger vehicles, raising the Fed. tax on gas, & setting a limit on carbon emissions from gas combustion & requiring gas producers to hold allow. for those emissions. Weighs the merits of those policies against these criteria: whether they would minimize costs to producers & consumers; how reliably they would achieve a given reduction in gas use; their implications for auto safety & their effects on such factors as traffic congestion, require. for highway constr'n., & emissions of air pollutants other than carbon. Also examines the impact on people at diff't. income levels & in different regions, & the effects on Fed. revenue. Illus. Also includes a 24-page illus. report, The Economic Costs of Fuel Economy Standards Versus a Gasoline TaxÓ; & a 19-page report, Shifting the Cost burden of a Carbon Cap-&-Trade Program.Ó