Page 6
THE BATTALION
WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 1977
Proposed gas tax
could hurt Texas,
researcher says
President Carter’s proposed gasoline tax could put a dent
in the Texas economy, a transportation researcher said at
Texas A&M University.
Dr. C. V. Wootan, head of Texas A&M’s Texas Transporta
tion Institute (TTI), spoke at the opening session of the 18th
Transportation Conference last week.
“The ‘gas-guzzler’ tax could be a powerful weapon in the
fuel-reduction arsenal,” Wootan explained. “A recently de
veloped model at TTI shows that if the gasoline tax was im
posed in 1979 and continued as proposed, by 1990, gasoline
consumption in Texas would be reduced by 3.2 billion gallons
over what would otherwise be expected, a reduction of over
30 per cent.”
There are obvious implications, he said. (The new tax
would go to the federal government while the 30 per cent
reduction in gas sales would mean that same 30 per cent
reduction from the state’s tax revenues which gains five cents
for every gallon of gasoline sold.)
“What appears to be a reasonable assumption today can be
a very unreasonable assumption tomorrow,” Wootan noted.
“However, the figures I have quoted represent some of the
best information we have available regarding future energy
consumption.”
“I consider the single most overriding weakness in the
Carter proposal to be the lack of a progressive development
policy. It concentrates on saving without providing needed
incentives for development of either new finds of existing
fuels or entirely new types of energy. ”
Since the transportation industry uses a lot of fuel, it will be
very sensitive to any changes in energy policies, he said.
“In a very real sense, automobile travel is the only mode
that currently exists for the large majority of people, particu
larly those of us in Texas, ” Wootan said.
“Consequently, any policy or set of policies that fails to
realign consumer-motorist incentives and to provide viable
alternatives for mobility, is going to have very little beneficial
effect upon transportation,” he said.
Coal is the great hope for Texas and the nation’s future
energy needs. However, Tom Berg, chairman of the Board of
Trustees of San Antonio’s Gas and Electric Utility, said that
coal may go the route of natural gas as a cheap energy source.
Zeroing in on the key problem of transportation cost of
coal, Berg pointed out that “already the transportation cost of
coal costs 150 per cent of the coitself and the rate
escalating enormously. The status'" coal as a low cost
could quickly change.”
“Utilities throughout the South ?5 t are committii
Western coal because it is abundant,^ er g said. “It
thick seams with good mining ratic which means
portionately less overburden, making more easily suij
mined.”
“However, a rough calculation slws that before
1980’s, the utilities of Texas will be rejving 3,200
of coal a week. There’s no telling ho many other
industries will have to convert to coal 1 that time, bui
traffic problems will be very complex anqidoubtedlyo
the greatest challenges the railroads he ever faced
predicted.
“We have found that there are a nuni r of critical 11
tions on the railroad network which cann handle the
ected 1985 traffic and it will simply be phyally impossii
Berg went on. “And, this study was madbefore Presi
Carter outlined the national goals to incret production
the use of coal from 600 million to a billiorims of coal
by 1985.”
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