Gas is cheaper than it was 25 years ago
Is that reasonable for a commodity that the most optimistic see available in sufficient volumes another 30 years at most? (and the less optimist say supply will never be sufficient again for demand unless prices go up sharply)?
Gas is not taxed
All rich countries outside of North America tax the stuff viciously, and do not seem to be doing so badly from it. So you'll say that we have public transport, and we don't live 25 miles from our work, and we can live with more expensive energy...
But don't you see that the two are linked? Living in your own home, with a garden and plenty of space is a LUXURY, made possible by cheap oil. You pay for that luxury in other ways: the hundreds of billions of dollars going to the Pentagon, which, face it, is just one big escort service for oil tankers and their owners; the trillions of debt owned by foreigners, which you'll have to eventually give real wealth in return for, or default on via inflation and devaluation.
It is not suburbs that require cheap oil. It is artificially cheap oil that has made you structure your country around the economically absurd idea of building housing flying distances from work places. Making oil steadily more expensive to change that peacefully is the only solution, otherwise the change will simply be brutish, nasty and short.
And if you think that gas taxes are a bad thing because they add to already high pain, it's because you do not really believe that prices will increase a lot more, and thus that a gas tax will come in addition, and not instead of oil price increases.
Consider this graph:
(VMT = vehicle miles travelled)
Despite tripled oil prices, and at least doubled gas prices (as you lack gas taxes, the increase in price is passed almost in full into the retail price: going from 1*/gal to 2$/gal is more noticeable than going from 5$/gal to 6$/gal), gas consumption has not dropped in the USA, and indeed has still been climbing.
As the tightness of supply means that we need demand destruction, and as that will not come from China (whose consumption, in the best case, will grow less than it otherwise would), it needs to come from us - and especially from you.
Tripling prices did not do the job. So much more will be needed. and it will happen. Gas taxes are not painless, but that's bad only if you believe there won't be pain in the near future. They will be much less painful than what is likely to happen in the next few years.
And, speaking of pain, Energize America would add $1.20 per gallon over 10 years, or just above 30c/liter to the second graph above. That would cost an additional $40 per average America driver each year.
From the howls of pain in the earlier threads, you guys have lost all perspective.
Gas guzzlers are not necessary
You do not need a SUV for anything as an individual. A normal car carries a lot of stuff and is enough in most circumstances (I have the equivalent of a Toyota Corolla hatchback (the small one), and I easily put in 3 kids, 3 big suitcases, several bags of toys and holiday stuff AND 2 bikes inside). If once a year you need to carry a really unusual load, rent a van. It's cheaper not to bother with that kind of carrying capacity at all times for a couple occasions each year at most. Small cars are safer then the bigger ones, they cost less, and they are pretty much as comfortable as bigger ones when you are alone in them 99% of the time.
You do not need to live 25 miles from work. It's a luxury. It's a choice, made possible by cheap oil, to live in bigger homes than what you can really afford.
You do not need V6 or V8 engines. For chrissakes, you can only drive at 55 mph. You could do that in a 2CV with its 2-cylinder engine 50 years ago. You can do that in excellent confort in a 30 hp smart or in luxury in a 75 hp Mini. What on earth, seriously, do you need 200/300/400 hp in any vehicle for???
You cars are a luxury, and soon reality is going to bring the bill. It's still time to anticipate, but barely.