Following the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, I would like to offer a suggestion that I think would strike a severe blow to the terrorists’ ability to operate.
America’s dependence on oil provides the economic resources to nations and individuals who provide vital financial support that allows terrorist organizations to operate effectively.
Let’s say the U.S. government set aside $1 billion a year for direct rebate on individual income tax to people who trade in their current fuel-inefficient cars for hybrid or alternate-fuel vehicles that average better than 50 miles per gallon.
If each individual was rebated, say, $4,000, this could put an additional 250,000 hybrid cars on the road each year.
The yearly reduction in fuel consumption would be enough to save a billion dollars in fuel cost in less than seven years for each 250,000 new cars purchased.
Such a program carried out over a period of years would have the effect of stimulating the manufacture and development of fuel-efficient vehicles.
This would result in a dramatic cost reduction and would accelerate the replacement of our current fuel-inefficient cars.
I believe that within a decade, oil consumption in the U.S. and, for that matter, the rest of the world would have decreased sufficiently to place those oil-producing countries that support terrorists and radical fundamentalism in no position to continue financing terror.
Given the hundreds of billions that we spend on arms and national defense, the allocation of a fraction of a percent of this amount would have a greater effect than many of our more direct military and defense initiatives of similar cost. It is only when we reduce our dependency on oil can we truly strike at one of the primary sources that nurture these terrorist organizations.
