Black Gold: It's Time to Raise the Gas Tax

Oil prices are low. Too low. Let's finally impose a big energy tax and use the windfall to help create jobs

Sarah Beth Glicksteen / The Christian Science Monitor / Getty

The only good economic news lately has been the collapse of oil prices. At the beginning of July, just five months ago, the price of a barrel of was more than $140. By the beginning of December, it was down to about $45. That's a drop of more than two-thirds. In the U.S., we consume about 15 million bbl. of crude a day. The saving of $95 per bbl. adds up to more than $500 billion a year. That's big — enough to bail out the auto industry 15 times.

Of course, we've been through this before. The price...

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