Conservatively Speaking

There’s a mass e-mail sweeping across the computers of Internet users throughout America calling for a one-day boycott of gasoline Tuesday, May 15, 2007.

Here’s how the e-mail reads:

“NO GAS...On May 15th 2007

Don't pump gas on MAY 15th

In April 1997, there was a "gas out" conducted nationwide in protest of gas prices. Gasoline prices dropped 30 cents a gallon overnight.

On May 15th 2007, all internet users are to not go to a gas station in protest of high gas prices. Gas is now over $3.00 a gallon in most places.

There are 73,000,000 American members currently on the internet network, and the average car takes about 30 to 50 dollars to fill up.

If all users did not go to the pump on the 15th, it would take $2,292,000,000.00 (that's almost 3 BILLION) out of the oil companies pockets for just one day, so please do not go to the gas station on May 15th and lets try to put a dent in the Middle Eastern oil industry for at least one day.

If you agree resend this to all your contact list. With it saying, ''Don't pump gas on May 15th"

Many readers of this e-mail, frustrated with the high cost of gasoline, will almost certainly think about avoiding gas pumps on May 15 in the hopes of sticking it to so-called Big Oil. Unfortunately, refraining from filling up on one designated day won’t affect oil companies. Consumers will only be hurting themselves.

There is an action angry motorists can take here in Wisconsin about ridiculous gas prices: fight Governor Doyle’s oil tax increase in his proposed state budget. His budget includes a new “assessment on oil companies.”

American linguist and Rutgers University English professor William Lutz would call that terminology, Doublespeak. Lutz is the author of The New Doublespeak, Why No One Knows What Anyone’s Saying Anymore. Lutz defines doublespeak as, “language that makes the bad seem good, the negative appear positive, the unpleasant appear attractive or least tolerable. Doublespeak is language that avoids or shifts responsibility, language that is at variance with its real or purported meaning.”

Governor Doyle uses doublespeak when he uses the phrase, "assessment on oil companies.” It’s a tax, but a tax that won’t be paid by oil companies. Those paying the freight will be motorists who will see the tax passed onto the price paid at the pump.

The non-partisan Wisconsin Policy Research Institute (WPRI) reports that the Governor’s tax will amount to a five-cent increase in our state’s gas tax, already one of the highest gas taxes in the country, and it will be paid directly by consumers. In its report entitled, The Truth Behind Wisconsin's Oil Company Tax: Why You'll Pay More at the Pump, the WPRI writes:

“The oil company gross receipts tax and its no-pass-through provision as proposed by Governor Doyle is the latest in a series of questionable fiscal maneuvers. But no one should be fooled; the proposal is a gas tax increase of five cents per gallon. The legislative consideration of the Governor's transportation budget must be based on this premise. Any thought of acquiescing to the Governor's proposed tax must be considered an endorsement of a five-cent per gallon increase in the tax on gasoline.”

The WPRI correctly comes to the conclusion that oil companies will do less business in Wisconsin and do more business in states that don’t have the tax Wisconsin would have. The result could be a damaging reduction in oil supplies to Wisconsin leading to fuel shortages, not to mention higher prices.

Here’s the complete WPRI study.

The Governor’s attempts to bar oil companies from passing on the increased cost to consumers by creating criminal penalties including jail time for oil company executives if their company passed the tax on would surely be fought in court. There’s not a guarantee the Governor’s punitive efforts against oil companies would meet Constitutional muster.

Instead of engaging in a futile one-day boycott of gasoline that will only make you feel good ever so temporarily, let your state Senator and state Representative know that you oppose Governor Doyle’s proposed oil tax increase in the state budget. You should also contact the Governor’s office and tell the Governor you oppose this gas tax increase by either calling (608) 266-1212 or e-mailing the Governor by using this form.