A Free-Market Energy Blog

Highway Taxes vs. Road Expenditure (Diversion) by State

By Randal O'Toole -- January 21, 2015

“The purpose of user fees is not to provide a slush fund for highway engineers or other transportation managers; it is to link users and providers so that both face the right incentives. Diverting gas taxes away from highways weakens the link between highway managers and users, and spending highway fees on transit weakens the link between transit agencies and transit riders.”

American motorists pay taxes of approximately $0.50 per gallon for motor fuel; ($0.48 for gasoline; $0.54 for diesel). At today’s prices, this is a 20–25 percent tax bite.

Of the federal $0.184/gallon gasoline and $0.244/gallon diesel levy, approximately 20 percent of collections goes to mass transit. Other diversions leave less than 80 percent for roads.

The American Petroleum Institute has a web page showing how much of the price you pay for gasoline goes to the government in each state.…

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Keystone XL and Climate: 0.0001 C/yr (one ten thousandths of a degree Celsius)

By Chip Knappenberger -- January 20, 2015

“Using standard IPCC models, we take 181 mmtCO2/year and divide it by 1,767,250 mmtCO2/°C. And we get 0.0001°C/yr, that is, one ten thousandths of a degree Celsius of temperature rise from the Canadian tar sands oil delivered by the Keystone XL pipeline each year.”

It’s hard to come up with things to say about the Keystone XL pipeline that haven’t been said many times before. Consequently, everyone from the President on down to the protestors, with industry, analysts and Congress in between, keeps on repeating the same things.

The facts haven’t changed in the six plus years that TransCanada’s proposal to build a pipeline to transport Alberta tar sands to refineries in the Gulf Coast was first officially proposed to the U.S. Department of State. The impact on permanent (not temporary!)…

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Climate Alarmists Turn Back the Clock

By Viv Forbes -- January 19, 2015

“The use of carbon fuels in the production, fertilising, transport, and storage of food has been a major factor in allowing the world population to grow by several billions since the start of the industrial revolution. If climate alarmists succeed in turning back the clock, food and energy will again become reserved for the rich and powerful, and billions of poor people will die of starvation or exposure.”

Three centuries ago, the world ran on green power. Wood was used for heating and cooking, charcoal for smelting and smithing, wind or water-power for pumps mills and ships, and whale oil or tallow for lamps. People and soldiers walked or rode horses, and millions of horses and oxen pulled ploughs, wagons, coaches and artillery.

But smoke from open fires choked cities, forests were stripped of trees, most of the crops went to feed draft animals, and streets were littered with horse manure.…

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The Stunningly Beautiful Price of Gasoline

By Jeffrey Tucker -- January 15, 2015
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Georgia Cronyism: DSM, Nuclear Plague Public Service Commission

By Jim Clarkson -- January 14, 2015
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Bipartisan Energy Policy: Consumers, Taxpayers Beware

By Peter Grossman -- January 13, 2015
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Cape Wind Is Dead! (U.S. offshore wind stuck at zero)

By -- January 12, 2015
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The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels (book review)

By Jay Lehr and Sterling Burnett -- January 8, 2015
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Energy for a Free Society: The American Energy Act (IER/AEA)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 7, 2015
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The American Energy Renaissance Act of 2014: Cruz/Bridenstine Revisited

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 6, 2015
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