If Gov. Pataki really wants to make a dent in US fuel consumption - which IMHO is a highly commendable goal - he should focus exclusively on demand reduction and leave the private sector to figure out alternative fuel production. Investors are falling over themselves to get in on that market anyhow.

If he wants light duty vehicles to average 34 MPG (approx. 7 l/100km or 166 g CO2/km), he needs to not only reward those that choose high-MPG vehicles but also lean on the wallets of those that prefer low-MPG designs in spite of the root causes of 9/11. Unfortunately, state governors probably cannot point blank refuse to issue vehicle licenses to gas guzzlers altogether.

There are several alternatives, though. Raising local gasoline taxes is arguably the most foolproof but does require the co-operation of neighboring states to avoid excessive gasoline tourism. This applies especially to NYC. A city-access toll (cp. London's congestion charge) would work, if it were offest by reductions in state income taxes for those who live or work there. The toll charged for the FasTrak lane could be based on the vehicle's official EPA MPG rating.

Another, simpler, option is to base the vehicle license fee on that rating. This would only affect vehicles licensed in NY state, though. Several European countries (Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic) work around the free rider problem by instead requiring by law all light duty vehicles on their freeways - regardless of provenance - to sport a vignette (aka decal) on the windshield. Get caught without one and you pay a hefty fine. The locals purchase the year-round version, tourists can buy temporary stickers valid for 8-15 days at gas stations. The price of the annual vignettes does not currently depend on vehicle fuel economy, but there is no fundamental reason why it could not.

Btw, alternative fuels actually do nothing to reduce overall demand for hydrocarbons - on the contrary. However, biofuels do have the advantage of further reducing the CO2 footprint, especially when he military and homeland security overheads of securing access to oil are taken into consideration. That does make them worthwhile in their own right, though only marginally so in the case of corn ethanol. Cellulosic butanol would be preferable by far, but the technology is not yet ready.

JUST saw this on the MV web site...

Effective July 15, 2006, new car dealerships will be responsible for collecting a 0.4% surcharge on the sale of new passenger vehicles, light trucks, SUVs, or vans for which either of the following conditions appy:

The gross sales/lease price of the new vehicle is $45,000 or greater, before trade-in, manufacturers rebates, or additional handicapped driver adaptive equipment
The new vehicle has an average EPA mile/gallon (city and highway) rating of less than 19

It is interesting to see that Pataki focuses not only on demand part of the equation, but on supply part too. If he wants to promote domestic alternative and traditional fuel production – it is their money, and they do not overstep their authority like they are doing by trying to regulate CO2 emission.

Rafael:
NYC already has hefty bridges/tunnels tolls, and sky-high parking fees. No amount of additional tolls or taxes will matter, especially considering that NY is world financial capital and sizable portion of it population have enough money not to care about any additional gas taxes (to some extend it could be said about London). The reason why most of the people in NY prefer not to use cars is very simple: the city is so huge and traffic is so crowded, that it is way FASTER to use transportation means above or below street level away from traffic lights. My opinion is that improving of subway system is way more beneficial then squeezing car traffic.

What really would be beneficial is finally stop to block and begin to promote hybrid taxis, Prius or Camry based. Advantages of such vehicles in taxi fleets have been already proved, and could be especially beneficial for NYC with antiquated junk they use as taxis.

As for your notion for roots of September 11, it is very dangerous delusion trying to blame somebody else but Islamic fundamentalists for this tragedy. Like trying to find what Jewish did wrong to get the Holocaust.

Andrey -

in now way, shape or from did I accuse the Jews of being responsible for 9/11. That inference is totally baseless and nothing if not outrageous.

My comment was shorthand for the fact that Islamist terrorism did not arise in a vacuum but rather, represents a desparate and horrific response to decades of Western foreign policy in the Middle East.

In the 1980s, the US twisted Saudi Arabia's arm to deliver 50% of the funding plus tens of thousands of its sons to fight a very dirty guerilla war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, managed by the CIA by way of then-fundamentalist Pakistan against the Soviets in Afghanistan. When the Soviets were forced to retreat, the US ended its financial support for the Mujaheddin in short order, abandoning them to the devastation they had wrought. Saudi Arabia refused to let its veterans return, so they formed al-Qaeda instead. Unsurprisingly, they have an axe to grind.

Of course, the US has for many decades propped up the house of al-Saud and other Arab cleptocrats in spite of their egregious human rights violations. Indeed, the 1991 war to "liberate" Kuwait was fought expressly to re-instate the old regime with mere lip service given to the notion of democracy. Simply put, US administrations of both parties have wanted to keep the world's oil flowing at low cost. The Persian Gulf (incl Iraq) is the only place in the world where crude oil is still so easily produced that it is economical to maintain substantial excess production capacity.

Among other creature comforts, plentiful cheap oil allowed US citizens to live tens of miles from their places of work and commute there in vehicles that offered everything but fuel economy. Of course, Europeans, Japanese and other Westerners also enjoy far greater freedoms and higher standards of living than the vast majority of Arabs do.

Nevertheless, and regardless of whether you agree with them or not, the increasingly radicalized Arab masses apparently perceive the US as the root cause of their plight, even if the proximate cause is their own government - which they are not permitted to critizise. Indeed, Arab potentates have long manipulated their own media to deflect blame away from themselves.

Does any of this absolve the 19 terrorists of 9/11 of personal responsibility for their heinous crimes? No, absolutely not! But it does illustrate that the attack - or something like it - has been brewing for decades. Sadly, more are likely to follow, regardless of whether Bin Laden is ever caught.

The locations symbolizing the effort to maintain the global pecking order are perceived to be Washington, DC and New York city, specifically Wall Street. The targets were not accidental, it's just that the twin towers were an easier and more spectacular target than the NYSE. If al-Qaeda or some other Islamist terorist organization manages to strike in the US again, chances are it will pick a similar symbol of (as THEY see it) US oppression, be it political, military, economic or cultural.

This is why reducing demand for crude oil everywhere in the Western world - but especially in the US - is critical to defusing the dangerous political tension with the Arab world in the long term. Only when we no longer depend on the Persian Gulf for our own freedoms can we afford to challenge the repressive regimes there. If China decides to prop them up regardless (cp. Iran), the focus of Islamist hatred will eventually shift to that country.

Therefore, I welcome Gov. Pataki's initiative, even if it took five years to formulate. If NY and CA "get it", there is at least a chance that the rest of the US will follow at some point - no doubt kicking and screaming all the way to the bowser.

I see a coming confrontation with Iran this year (or 2008, both election years), and we might need the extra production to hedge against a collapse of oil production in the Persian Gulf. If the US Fed. govt. decides to go for a crash course production setup, long term ramifications to the environment are not encouraging. Americans (and the rest of the world) may get comfortable with cheap, abundant syncrude from oil shale (predominantly US sourced). That will have consequences as to all those renewable energy programs up and running right now. Many of these programs are existing because of high/rising energy prices. If oil shale derived energy becomes available in OPEC like quantites, we could see the return to ~$30 barrel oil/~$1.50 ga/gasoline.

P.S.
Rafael, please read my previous post again. As you put it, “in no way, shape, or form” I accused you for blaming September 11 on Jews. It was merely analogy: some people are trying to find what European Jews did wrong which lead to Holocaust. Some people are trying to find what Western democracies did wrong which lead to rise of Islamic terrorism.

I agree with a point Andrey made before, which is that an improved public transit infrastructure can encourage commuters to leave their cars in favor of transit, reducing oil consumption. Beyond more buses and trains, we should also re-think typical modern zoning and planning models, which make life without a car too difficult. While NYC is hardly a suburban dystopia, there are many upstate communities which could use a bit of urban-core redevelopment.

One phrase, carpool. Automated, networked (blackberry, cell phones, WiFi, etc), and flexible system of garages, pickup pts, express bus stops, express and HOV lanes, and rail/subways will do this. It could even be profitable, or self supporting, for the operators.

Bob -

one of the problems with extremely high tolls on some roads only is that traffic gets displaced to non-toll roads that were never designed to take the strain. This is happening in Germany, where heavy-duty trucks are thundering through once-quiet villages to avoid TollCollect charges. Similar problems exist in France, Italy, Spain etc. Beyond a certain level, you have to apply charges to the entire road network, e.g. via higher fuel taxes or vehicle license fees.

" Islamist terrorism did not arise in a vacuum but rather, represents a desparate and horrific response to decades of Western foreign policy in the Middle East."

Ok, so why does Islamic Terrorism happend in India, Sudan, Kenya, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, etc....

That's like trial to blame the actions of the KKK on the policies of their local government.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/04/24/egypt.blasts/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/07/05/somalia.world.cup.ap/index.html

http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/11065.asp

Enough, please. There's plenty of other places to trot out your little theories about global politics etc.

Rafael, you're not merely grossly wrong, you're also grossly off-topic.  Please ramble elsewhere.