At the pump, the movie never ends

The popular use of the gas-cap lock came in the 1970s when gas prices were soaring and thieves would siphon gasoline from your car if found sitting overnight at the curb. The gasoline prices back then were, of course, hilariously low by today's pump prices — less than a dollar a gallon.

Those little brass cap-lock keys became ubiquitous on key rings and they will certainly return again as gasoline becomes more expensive than any other liquid we use in our lives. The half-tank of gas left in an old beater in the driveway becomes the most valuable thing in the car, a condition known as low-hanging fruit to siphon thieves. Watch everyone in public office scramble to get as far away from catching blame for $3.09 per gallon at the pump. As in the last gas crisis of 30 years ago, everyone has a solution that should have been put in place when the pump price was half of what it is now.

The Chicago Tribune, which watches the Midwest closely, notes in an editorial that ethanol, the additive to gasoline mandated in many states, is now selling at $118 a barrel — or about $2.80 a gallon. This combination of gas and corn is sold at the pump around the Midwest as gasohol.

This sounds good to corn farmers if they get any money upstream from the processing and distribution costs of ethanol. But the additives cost money and, as the Tribune notes, the ethanol content mandate is bolstered by high tariffs to prevent the corn product from being imported.

So it is in Washington state, where the interest in biofuels inspired the Legislature to propose mandated percentages of the fiber products added to gasoline. But proponents were concerned biofuels would be imported from places like Minnesota and wanted to give local producers a head start with a state-controlled rollout of the biofuels in tandem with local production.

In the Midwest, they are selling something to put in your car called E85, which means an ethanol content of 85 percent of each gallon. In Washington, the hope was to retail B2, only 2 percent of each gallon from a biofuel such as crushed canola seeds.

The lesson in all of this is that gasoline has become the root of more industries than oil and seed for a thousand taxing trees. The 9.5-cent-a-gallon state highway tax on gasoline was touted (and endorsed on these pages) as the funding flow needed for roads and bridges.

Not only is the stuff heavily taxed, simultaneously the industry gets heavily subsidized. Ethanol producers are among the most bounteous beneficiaries of Congress. As the Tribune calculated, there is a 51-cents-per-gallon tax credit for ethanol producers.

How Congress responds to these periodic crises is a mystery. Our editorial opinion stated on the inside page today is that a taxpayer rebate of $400 or $100 is silly and counts us all as stupid. Why would the government pay us back for money collected at the pump? Congress would do it to gain our favor — call it the two-tank kiss on the cheek for the SUV driver.

In the 1970s, the gas crisis was punctuated by calls for coastal oil, pressure on the Arab states and higher fuel efficiencies. Almost nothing happened, with the major exception being the rise of the Japanese car industry. Fleet-car efficiencies were compromised under the law while the nation adjusted its pocketbook to the high prices. Thirty years later, the discussion continues.

My only advice is to buy a gas lock.

James F. Vesely's column appears Sunday on editorial pages of The Times. His e-mail address is: jvesely@seattletimes.com