[jyl]

Taxing a commodity is not controlling it. The government can't control the price of oil. It can't control the fundamental fluctuations in gas prices. But it can take a smaller tax bite when prices are high, and a larger bite when prices are low.

The tax bite on gas needs to be larger on average than it is now. Unless there is some other way to fund reinvestment in the country's roads and bridges. That tax bite has been getting smaller and smaller over the decades, because it isn't indexed to inflation, and now it's nowhere near enough. Infrastructure doesn't last forever, it crumbles and rusts.

So, we can make the tax on gas higher all the time, like $0.30 instead of $0.18 now. Or we can make it lower when consumers can least afford it, and higher when they can most afford it. Seems desirable to me. But if people prefer a constant tax, that's fine with me.