The simple math of climate change

So, here’s some easy math. Which is larger: five or 40?

If you guessed 40, you’d of course be right. But if you said five, you’d be playing right into another false narrative spewing from the seemingly bottomless geyser of GOP lies.

Why? Because 5 cents is the amount per gallon your gas could rise if Connecticut were to adopt the interstate Transportation Climate Initiative, or TCI. Whereas 40 cents is the price gas actually has risen at the pump in the last five months alone. And yet the talking points from the conservative Yankee Institute, swallowed wholesale and repeated by Republican elected officials, is that the TCI “gas tax” is too onerous a burden for the consumer to bear. But the reality is that the consumer pays more for gas constantly, and without a peep.

At my local station (the Mobil on Route 154 in Chester), regular gas cost $3.06 on June 25. This week, it had soared to $3.40. Why? Who knows? A whim of OPEC? The rainstorms near the Gulf Coast refineries? The economic vagaries of the stock market? Pandemic-era supply chain delays? The local station goofed and put up the wrong plastic cards in the marquee over the pump?

When I asked the manager what accounted for the 34-cent increase over

June’s prices, she had no idea what caused the jump. And when I asked if this local business got any of the profits, she replied firmly that they did not.

Where is the Republican outrage? There isn’t any.

The fact is we are all used to wild fluctuations in gas prices since the embargoes and shortages of the 1970s. Do we protest? No. Do we change our driving habits? Doubtful. Do we boycott gas altogether and ride bikes? If only.

No, we suck it up and carry on. Why, then, are people up in arms about a possible hike of 5 cents that might result if petroleum distributors were actually held accountable for their enormous, devastating carbon footprint? Probably because the rise would go to help our environment, and the cries of environmentalists — driven by millions of young people terrified for their future on this planet — are not as important as winning elections.

But let’s get back to the math: At 5 cents per gallon, for a 12-gallon tank filled up every two weeks, the average driver would pay, under TCI, an additional $15.60 per year. (More math: 0.5 cents per gallon times 12 gallons times 26 weeks equals $15.60.) But at the current rate of gas inflation, that figure is $106.08 per year. And (bear with me here) even if the maximum rise under TCI projections came true — that is, 9 cents (the allowable increase is capped at that) — the consumer would pay about $23.40 per year. Still less than a quarter of what we are currently paying, and without complaint.

Transparency matters in public policy. So the advocates of TCI willingly disclose the potential cost of the program. And so we get the blowback. In comparison, the fossil fuel industry operates in mysterious ways, and no one questions them.

So what would TCI give us for that measly $15.60 annually? Clean electric buses. A dramatic reduction in asthma rates (vs. an average of $200 per month for an uninsured asthma inhaler). Shuttles for the elderly who can no longer drive. Light rail systems that would draw millennials to Connecticut. Conveniently located charging stations. And, of course, jobs.

In comparison, what does the $106.08 we’re currently paying get us? Four video games. A car tune-up. A two-year subscription to GQ Magazine’s box of “Best Stuff.” One bottle of Veuve Clicquot champagne. Not to mention maintaining the status quo of oil giant profits and the elite few who invest in them.

You do the math and then, please, decide what really matters to you, your children and grandchildren.