I'm slow to the post on this one, but if you hadn't heard, John McCain has proposed a summer holiday from federal gas taxes, to ease the effect of high-market prices during the summer touring season. Unthinkers will love it — they save a few bucks at the pumps, and gee, ain't John a swell guy for looking out for us? Except he is not. Taxes — which I don't like, and no one likes, and gosh wouldn't it be swell if everything were free — are going to be one of the ways we change over from a carbon-based economy to a renewable one. If the government gives tax breaks to buyers of wind, solar, hydro, and other renewable electricity, those will become more available, and we will use more of than and less of coal. Everyone — except coal producers — will benefit from that eventuality. For cars, so far, there really is nothing comparable — no great alternative that we could give tax breaks for. Yes, there is biodiesel, but until it is no longer developed from food stocks, it's a bad idea, and I would oppose using taxes to support that at the expense of gasoline refiners. (Though I sure wouldn't mind if we took away the massive tax benefits that oil producers get.) Nevertheless, cars produce CO2. CO2 in the atmosphere is bad for everyone. Any vote-mining stunt that would add CO2 to the atmosphere — as more driving, brought on by lower fuel taxes, would do — would be bad for everyone. Except, I suppose, John McCain. I don't know what the prospects are for his proposal, though I'm reminded of Art Buchwald's dictum: If they're dumb enough to propose it, they're dumb enough to pass it. McCain's calculus has to be that it doesn't matter; he's the one who proposed it, whether the pencil-necks in Washington get behind it or not. What it shows me is that McCain will put his personal prospects ahead of the planet's. It shows me that McCain doesn't really think the planet is in trouble, and that corners can be cut if there's political gain in it. It shows me he can't be trusted on a most vital issue. ('Course, give his war plan, this isn't a surprise.) I've grown very, very weary of TV jokesters making fun of McCain's age, because whatever the number is (72), he doesn't seem doddering to me, but in this case, his age might be salient. It is fair to say that in his lifetime, it is indeed unlikely that we'll see sea level rises that dramatically affect coastal populations and the world economy. So maybe it is just less important to him. That's hardly a leadership stance, but regardless, it's good to know: If you want environmental policy change, you will not get it from John McCain.