It costs what it costs. It wouldn’t cost near as much if way back when Jimmy Carter was president we had heeded his advice…..increase the CAFE standards to the extent that the technology became available…..instead we got a generation of gas guzzling SUVs. These heavier vehicals of course degraded road surfaces so that maintenance became evermore expensive. The concept of rail travel was abandon in favor of fuel guzzling air travel and of course the idea of using renewable resources was laughed out of the picture by the right wing talk show bozos. Public rapid transit? Ha-ha! A national investment in solar and wind power where appropriate? Ha-ha! The very concept of ‘enough’…..what a horse laugh! So, now we get to pay more for less….the price of folly. How much do you think the BushWar for Oil in the middle east is costing you? Given that only a ten to twelve percent reduction in oil consumption would get us totally clear of middle east oil, why didn’t that happen? Could it be that the Oil Mafia and their stooges in congress didn’t want to lose the income from selling oil to oil junkies? Dude, what you’re now seeing is the chickens making their way home….it didn’t have to be this way, but it is….don’t blame
‘California’, blame all the suckers that listened to guys that insisted we use more of everything as if there is never a price to be paid for bad decisions! No kiddin’!

You win. Best April fools day joke.
Let’s take more money out of circulation.
Makes me realize what meat heads state legislators are. Not that the sub-prime mess, regulated by them wasn’t enough.

Yeah lets take care of the little people. Let us add another 9 cents to their already high gas prices. Maybe we can get a few more people to quit working and depend upon us. People who think taxing extra will result in less use of gas are just fooling themselves. If an area has a good transportation system a lot of people are already using it and an additional tax may get some more people on public transportation. There is a but here and that is areas where there is little or no public transportation. These people are dependent upon their cars and there is no alternative but to drive. These are the people you will be hurting. What would help is for us to get the oil out of the oil shale in the west, to drill in ANWAR, to drill off the coast of Florida (just like Cuba and Mexico are doing). To allow us to build new and more modern refineries that will pollute less and get more out of each barrel of oil. Typical democrats thinking taxing more will solve every problem.

Lets just give it all to them and see how fruitless we can become

I live in Chicago and gas is at 3.97 at the corner by my house. I guess I’m going to be riding my bike a hell of a lot more. I need a mo-ped like in those third world countries because isn’t that what we are becoming anyway.I would love to get a hybrid if they were under 4000 dollars I could afford one.Diesel for trucks in Chicago $4.30 ouch

Oh, wonderful!
*Note the sarcasm.*

No, I don’t think this is a good idea. Maybe some people are able to update their vehicle every time a new hybrid comes out, but I sure as hell can’t afford to.

I’d choose the increase in registration fees, and I do live in CA.

If you put a gun to my head and say, “Choose the tax or the registration fee”, I’d pick the tax. At least it would provide an incentive for more fuel efficient vehicles and alternate energy sources.

My ultimate choice, however, would be “Why is this tax necessary to begin with? If you want to raise taxes in this area to promote fuel efficiency, what are you going to lower taxes on to balance off the increase? Lower state income taxes by .1 percent? A higher standard deductable on your income tax? Why can’t we cut existing spending instead of raising taxes?”

EDIT: To do the math for strictly, the $90 registration fee would pay for a 9 cent increase on 1,000 gallons of gas. ($.09 x 1,000 = $90). If your car averaged 25 miles per gallon, that means you would have to drive over 25,000 miles per year to make the registration fee pay off. Anything under that, you’re better off paying .09 cents extra a gallon. This number would change depending on the average miles per gallon of your car.

I think the $90 would be cheaper in the long run. 9 cents a gallon is a lot and you have to get gas at least once a week….you only have to register your vehicle once a year.

Yes, this is a great idea. We need something that will finally wean us from gasoline dependence. I hope the money raised will be earmarked for alternative fuel exploration.

CRAZY!! I can not even afford the gas now. Supposably the truckers are suppose to be protesting today, so we shall see how that goes over.