According to Wikipedia, "The U.S. federal gasoline tax as of 2005 was 18.4¢/gal (4.86¢/L), and the gasoline taxes in the various states range from 10 cents to 33 cents, with an average about 22 cents per U.S. gallon (5.8¢/L). Unlike most goods in the U.S., the price displayed includes all taxes, rather than being calculated at the point of purchase."

I can't be sure whether that very broad estimate on state gasoline taxes is also assumed to include county taxes as well. I do know, however, from several years I spent working as a typist in the Tampa City Clerk's Office, that many counties also levy a fuel tax. Certainly, Hillsborough County, where I lived for seven years or so, does.

Then, over here, we find that there were a total of 234,624 vehicles registered in the U.S. in 2002, which consumed 167,730 million gallons of fuel.

That's $30,862,340,000 -- thirty billion, eight hundred sixty two million, three hundred and forty thousand dollars for the Federal government every year from gasoline taxes.

It's also an average of $36,900,600,000 -- thirty six billion, nine hundred million, six hundred thousand dollars on average for each state, per year, from fuel taxes.

This is why, when our newly elected Democrats told us in 2006 that they were going to commit to alternate energy sources, the sanest thing one could have done is laugh hysterically. It's as bad as "I'm from the government, I'm here to help". Our government makes tens of billions of dollars per year off our cultural addiction to, as they like to call it in that old TV theme song, "Texas tea". Would you believe a random stranger who walked up to you on the street and said "I'm making thirty billion dollars a year off people like you buying home heating oil from my company, and now, out of the goodness of my heart, I'm going to invest a hundred billion into figuring out ways for you to heat your home that won't require you to buy my product any more?"

But, you know, our government isn't a business, and isn't all about personal profit. The men and women who we elect to high office are honorable and ethical people, and... huh... hwuh... bwah... ha ha HO HA HA HO HEEEEEEE....

Sorry, I had to stop typing for a minute and get myself back under control again. I'm okay now... >snort< >guffaw<

Okay. And leaving all that aside, while government may not be, on paper, about personal profit (riiiiiiiiiiiight), the fact of the matter is, government is about raising money and then spending it on programs that, supposedly, help the public. There's never enough money to go around to all the programs that the public wants to have funded (mostly because our government insists on spending trillions on programs none of us would want funded if we knew about them, but leave that aside for the moment, too), so it's simply insane and absurd to believe that our government is ever going to wean us off the gas teat while it's making them so much tax revenue, at every level -- local, county, state, and Federal.

We'll see alternate fuel sources become viable and commonly accessible when the government figures out (a) one that works and (b) one that can make them at least forty billion dollars a year in tax revenue. Let us never forget Westinghouse's infamous question to Tesla -- "Where do I put the meter?" If you can't sell it by the cubic foot to a willing target demographic, it's just not worth investing development capital in.

That, at least, is politics as usual. Perhaps President Obama will be different. Certainly John McCain won't... but let us always remember, if America doesn't buy gasoline any more, that's around $30 to $40 billion dollars a year the government isn't coercing out of our pockets any more. That's good news for us, but a pretty big fiscal shortfall for government on every level to have to make up. Where's it going to come from?

Somehow or other, it's going to come from where it always comes from -- We, The People. Heinlein's cruelest law, TANSTAAFL*, always applies.

(For those of you not as geeky as me, that's "There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"... and if you haven't read Heinlein's THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS, you really, really should. End plug.)