There are many ways to help solve the current high prices at the gas pumps, improve passenger car miles per gallon (mpg), and curve global warming trends. Just look at your favorite news outlets and you’ll find debates and ideas abound on how to solve this problem. One of them includes implementing sin taxes.

Sin taxes to help the development of hybrid cars, electric cars, plug-in cars and clean diesel cars? Let take a look.

Sin taxes refer to new types of “creative” taxes borne out of cash-strapped states and cities that governors, legislatures and mayors are proposing. Think plastic bag tax, obesity tax (soft drink), junk food tax and gas guzzler tax. Expanding a step further on the gas guzzler tax, what if we give it a more positive twist. Something like “green tax”?

But seriously, whatever we call it, we’ll all have to recognize the importance behind a “green tax “and think about it carefully before dismissing it as just another tax. We all have a choice in what we choose to drive. The key thing here is the reason behind our choices. Other than people who need certain types of vehicles to make a living, many of us have a simple need in a vehicle: to get us to and from work reliably every day and the occasional pleasure trips. The problem is we, collectively as a nation/group/people, have our behaviors to blame for not making good and educated choices.

Education and behavioral change will help get us out of the oil dependency and global warming bind. Instead of leaving it up to the mass to continue and make bad choices, we’ll need help with our education and behaviors to begin heading in the right direction. Just like many other laws already in force and doing good, a “green tax” can help us achieve good things. Whatever we decide to do, consumer behaviors must be at the top of the list of things to change.

This is because there is no reason for the mass to buy hybrid cars, electric cars, plug-in cars or even clean diesel cars. This is especially true when gas prices are below $3-4 per gallon. The “green tax”, if done right, can help stabilize gas prices, and together with other tax incentives, will be strong reasons to buy cleaner cars.

So no one likes taxes. But with the oil dependency and global warming crises, shifting people’s behaviors will be essential. Sin taxes, and more specifically “green taxes”, are one way for us to make progress. And when the consumers make good, sensible choices, car manufacturers will have to meet such demands. This means better, cleaner cars.

Would you support a “green tax”, knowing you’ll help developing cleaner cars and lowering global warming risks in the long run? Is this a worthy investment? Please share your thoughts and opinions.

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