[Saturn69]

Originally Posted by TimR

The difference is Europe has (for the most part) the infrastructure to move people around without cars. We don't ....we are spread out over long distances and much of our economy is defined by farming and rural interests, so it will hit us harder economically than many European countries.

Regular is 1.03L right now (ie $4.12/US Gallon), I still need a truck so thats the way it goes....

Yes....I live in Iowa and I regularly drive to Georgia. Cities and suburbs should have some sort of mass transit system between them, to eliminate congestion if nothing else. The whole "we are spread out more than Europe" line only works so long as you don't think about why more American cities don't have light rail to handle transportation between the suburbs to the major manufacturing/business/employment centers. You don't think it's going to hit us hard when the people who live in the suburbs can no longer afford the gas to get to and from work and they have no other options? Would it hurt us more if we took the Federal excise tax and put it towards developing light rail for cities with populations in excess of 100K people? I know Canada is spread out a lot more than we are, but we aren't talking about putting in mass transit between every State or Province, we can't be connected on that level, but to deny the need for some sort of fail-safe mass public transportation network is just plain foolish.