Hedged In's  Instablog

 In Lessons on How to Guzzle Less Gas, From Europe and Japan, author Jad Mouawad cites some interesting stats:

• Oil use in the US rose over 20% between 1973 and 2007. During that time, Germany and France cut their oil demand by 25%, and Japanese demand is flat.
• Gasoline taxes in the US are far lower than in other industrialized countries. When gas hit $4 a gallon in the US last summer, it cost $7-10 a gallon in Europe.
• The population of the US is expected to growth from 300 million today to 400 million in 2050. (The populations of Europe and Japan are not expected to grow.) That means that the US needs to become a third more energy efficient to keep gasoline demand where it is now.

He suggests that the US should dramatically increase gas taxes, and also make heavier investments in public transportation. But he also writes:

"Despite the energy shocks of the 1970s and 1980s, cars in the United States became bigger and more powerful; suburbs grew larger and more distant. Mass transit was neglected."

While it's easy to raise the price of gas, and that will certainly lead to smaller cars, changing the last 25 years of urban and suburban development won't be so easy. It's also not easy to raise gas taxes (or any other taxes) in a recession.

What would be the impact if the Obama administration did significantly raise gas taxes. A big hit to the oil ETFs.

If you think higher oil taxes are likely, be careful if you own any of these:

Claymore MACROshares Oil Up Tradeable ETF (UCR) 
E-TRACS UBS Bloomberg CMCI Energy Index ETN (UBN) 
iPath DJ-AIG Energy Total Return Sub-Index (JJE) 
iPath DJ-AIG Natural Gas Total Return Sub-Index (GAZ) 
iPath S&P GSCI Crude Oil Total Return Index ETN (OIL) 
PowerShares DB Energy Fund ETF (DBE) 
PowerShares DB Oil Fund ETF (DBO) 
PowerShares DB Crude Oil Long ETN (OLO) 
PowerShares DB Crude Oil Double Long ETN (DXO) 
PowerShares DB Crude Oil ETN (SZO) 
PowerShares DB Crude Oil Double Short ETN (DTO) 
United States Gasoline Fund, LP ETF (UGA) 
United States Heating Oil Fund, LP ETF (UHN) 
United States Oil Fund, LP ETF (USO) 
United States 12 Month Oil Fund, LP ETF (USL) 
United States Natural Gas Fund, LP ETF (UNG)