Car owners, beware. Owning a car is about to become much more expensive. A new legislation called the HR 2454 Cap and Trade Bill that has just been run through by congress will tax all forms of energy consumption including coal and natural gas, raising all of our living expenses substantially. This bill is expected to cause an increase in the per gallon cost of gasoline to upwards of seven dollars a gallon across the board.

Though it is difficult to imagine paying over a hundred dollars for two thirds of a tank of gas, it looks as if things may be heading in that direction if this bill goes into effect and has the suspected ramifications that those opposed to the bill are anticipating. This attempt to discourage people from using energy wastefully by taxing us on it is supposed to entice us to use more alternative forms of energy that are more environmentally safe, thereby decreasing our carbon footprint on the planet and the atmosphere.

Perhaps our best bet is to just put our car into the local car storage and start riding public transportation, although the cost of taking public transportation will also rise in accordance with the rising costs of fuel. Local car storage facilities will be among those to see an increase in business as people begin walking, biking and carpooling more than ever. It is not difficult to imagine just how much such a large tax will affect the cost of just about everything in our daily lives. We rely on energy for everything from using the microwave to heat up our lunch to checking our email. Perhaps there are other ways to entice Americans to begin conserving our resources so as to avoid further damage to our atmosphere. It remains to be seen how far things will go before we are forced to consider these new options.