February 06, 2006
'Energy tax' is a non-starter – rebrand it 'price stabilisation'
Letter to the Editor, Financial Times, US Edition, p. 14, February 6, 2006.
Sir,
A high oil price is good for the environment, but it does not have to be good "for the totalitarians in Saudi Arabia," as Jacob Weisberg argues ("A Union address that ran on empty", February 2). The solution is simply a variable tax on all crude oil imports aimed to stabilise the final price. Oil price volatility creates a heavy cost for American industry and consumers.
Under the name of an "energy tax", this proposal has been a political non-starter for decades. Re-branding it as a "price stabilisation" measure aimed at lessening our addiction to oil should have something for everybody.
Gernot Wagner
Repsol YPF-Kennedy School of Government Fellow in Energy Policy,
Harvard University,
Cambridge, MA 02138, US
Posted by Gernot Wagner on Monday, February 06, 2006. 
