Federal spending on surface-transportation infrastructure outpaces federal taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel. Increasing fuel efficiency means that fuel-purchase expenditures have dropped, so real revenue generated from these taxes has declined. A percentage tax on crude oil and imported refined-petroleum products consumed in the United States could fund U.S. transportation infrastructure.
Oil, gas and mineral deposits are a substantial part of the wealth of many countries, not least in developing and emerging market economies. Harnessing some part of that wealth for fiscal purposes is critical for economic development: in few areas of economic life are the returns to good policy so large, or mistakes so costly.
Seventy percent of the oil America uses each year goes to transportation. That means that the national oil addiction and all its consequences, from climate change to disastrous spills to dependence on foreign markets, can be greatly reduced by changing the way we move. In Transport Beyond Oil, leading experts in transportation, planning, development, and policy show how to achieve this fundamental shift. The authors demonstrate that smarter development and land-use decisions, paired with better transportation systems, can slash energy consumption. John Renne calculates how oil can be saved through a future with more transit-oriented development. Petra Todorovitch examines the promise of high-speed rail. Peter Newman imagines a future without oil for car-dependent cities and regions. Additional topics include funding transit, freight transport, and nonmotorized transportation systems. Each chapter provides policy prescriptions and their measurable results. Transport Beyond Oil delivers practical solutions, based on quantitative data. This fact-based approach offers a new vision of transportation that is both transformational and achievable.
The domestic taxation of petroleum products is an important source of revenue in most countries. However, there is a wide variation of tax rates on petroleum products across countries, which cannot be explained by economic theory alone. This paper surveys different considerations advanced for taxing petroleum and presents petroleum tax rate data in 120 countries. It concludes that a significant reduction in the present extremely wide variation in petroleum prices and tax rates appears warranted.
"Bill Coleman's story is one that younger generations should mark and inwardly digest, lest they forget the pioneers who helped to make a better America possible." —From the Foreword by Stephen G. Breyer William Coleman has spent a lifetime opening doors and breaking down barriers. He has been an eyewitness to history; moreover, he has made history. This is his inspiring story, in his own words. Americans of color faced daunting barriers in the 1940s. Despite graduating first in his class at Harvard Law and clerking for Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, Coleman was shut out of major East Coast law firms. But as the Philadelphia native writes, "The times, they were a'changing." He not only benefited from that change—he helped propel it, by way of dogged determination, undeniable intellect, and stellar accomplishment. Coleman's legal work with Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund helped jumpstart the civil rights movement in the 1950s. He was the first American of color to clerk for the Supreme Court, and later served as senior counsel to the Warren Commission, investigating the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In 1975 he was appointed secretary of transportation by President Gerald Ford—the first American of color to serve in a Republican cabinet—and in 1995 he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Bill Clinton. At his core, Bill Coleman is a lawyer. He strives to be a "counsel for the situation"—an advocate able to take on major matters in a variety of legal disciplines while upholding the highest traditions of justice and the public interest. He is fiercely proud of the legal profession's role in a democratic society and free economy, and he is grateful for the opportunities that profession has afforded him in the court room, the board room, and the corridors of power. It is through this prism that he relates his own story—his life and the law. The results speak for them
"TRB's Conference Proceedings 48: Financing Surface Transportation in the United States: Forging a Sustainable Future--Now summarizes a May, 2010 conference that focused on developments in innovative funding techniques and options for securing continued revenue to support national infrastructure and mobility needs. Views presented in Conference Proceedings 48 reflect the opinions of the individual participants and are not necessarily the views of all conference participants, the planning committee, TRB, or the National Research Council."--Publisher's description.
