About a year and a half ago, after Hurricane Katrina and the big run up of gas prices, Clark proposed an idea: discourage people from buying gas-guzzling vehicles and encourage them to buy fuel efficient models. He suggested taking vehicles that got bad fuel economy (less than 20 miles per gallon) and hit them with a $5000 gas-guzzler tax. If you buy a vehicle that gets between 20-29 mpg there would be no tax, and if you buy one that gets over 30 mpg, you’d get a $5000 rebate from the government. Some people were furious with that position. But now, the State of California is considering doing this. (The California tax would be $2500 for guzzlers, a $2500 rebate for efficient vehicles, and no tax for autos that fall in between.) Americans use far more fuel, electricity and energy than other countries of equal wealth. He believes that we hurt our national security and our national defense needs when we remain dependent on foreign sources that hate our guts. That’s why in Clark’s opinion encouraging people to use less energy of all kinds is a big deal.