Faced with rolling blackouts, power companies are toying with price breaks for consumers who cut back on electricity use.
Vehicle manufacturers, however, are moving in the opposite direction--promoting sport-utility vehicles and other metal monsters to conspicuous consumers.
SUVs, of cource, escape stringent fuel-efficiency standards because they are technically classified as trucks.
And we all know that the overwhelming majority of SUVs rarely carry lots of passengers or drive off road, just as few pickup trucks ever haul anything.
Solution: Gas hogs should pay greater shares of state and federal fuel taxes and license fees.
For example: Drivers of four-cylinder vehicles would pay, say, 40 percent of the taxes and fees, while drivers of vehicles with six or more cylinders would pay 160 percent.(20 MAY 2001)
