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Comment by dillondoyle | Hacker News Reader

I see it too (work to elect Dems). Especially if gas is over $5 past august. Seeing signs it will cool down though?

Subsidizing gas seems like obvious on paper but fraught with problems especially with inflation (and opposite of what's needed for climate change).

Would love to see federal legalization, or at least decriminalization of marijuana. IDK if only decriminalization would hold up with reconciliation but I think regulating it legalized commerce would.

And sad to say but assuming Roe is gutted/thrown to the states that could galvanize turnout on both sides, hopefully to our benefit. We'll see what games are played with Jackson's nomination too

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> Subsidizing gas seems like obvious on paper but fraught with problems especially with inflation (and opposite of what's needed for climate change).

Gas (fossil fuels in general) is already extremely heavily subsidized.

For sure. I'm talking about direct payments to lower income families.

When you count in the externalities of pollution and climate change the amount we pay is cheap (it's still cheap per mile driven and just in general terms we drive giant cars long distances it's crazy...)

We're already spending billions on health effects, lost working lives, and even more on existing damage from climate change.

Biggest missed opportunity is the failed climate bill. I'm not optimistic about the future.

Lol at the idea that electing Democrats will help with gas prices. Come to Cali and see how that works in practice.

Gas prices are higher in California due to multiple taxes being added to the base price

Isn't California gasoline generally more expensive because it requires a more stringent formulation of gasoline and so only a handful of refineries produce that?[1][2]

I imagine if the whole country used the California standard then gas prices in California would go down.

I don't know how much it would go up in the rest of the country though.

Really we should just ditch gas. The political drama from the last 50+ years over oil alone seems like a no-brainer for anything but gasoline, even if it costs more.

[1] https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/gasoline/about [2] https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article259190893.html

Yes I know. That's why am I saying if it gets above $5 nationwide that's a symbolic number (despite gas still being cheaper per mile driven but whatever).

I'm saying that could mean a decent chance of Dems subsidizing fuel temporarily, maybe similar to child tax credit mailed out to families under $50k monthly.

I doubt would get R support unless they put into it vast deregulation as well.

And with inflation might not even be a great idea.

We're going to lose anyways unless something unexpected happens.

I am not sure gas will remain that high. I’ve noticed gas starting to reduce slightly already.

I can see populist measures, such as prohibiting or limiting exports of gasoline or whatever, to potentially reduce the gas price in the near term.

The futures price is going down a good amount. There's really not much we can do about it except bribe Venezuela, iran, and MBS.

Which seems like we're trying to do. Which is gross on its own too.

I don’t particularly like any of those, but I honestly think we should bury the hatchet with Venezuela. MBS is the worst and honestly, this is unpopular, but I think Saudi Arabia is more problematic than Iran.

i agree. given those choices i would choose venezuala too. especially if we can get some concessions for democracy/corruption. it is close to our backyard.

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