Above in the thread I suggested we increase fuel taxes in order to encourage people to voluntarily reduce their use of gasoline & diesel. This seems like a no brainer that shouldn't be controversial at all. Petroleum is a limited resource shared by all of us. If some people choose to use more fuel than others, because it brings them happiness, wouldn't a tax be a fair way for heavier users to compensate others who choose to use less of the community resource? That way people who want to use more fuel could go on doing so, and it would get the environmentalists off of their backs.
It's kind of sad that this conversation has devolved into a big argument about climate change. Members of the group who enjoy motor sports, waterskiing, driving big trucks, etc., seem like they feel hurt by others who just don't like big SUVs, trucks and boats, and they lump anyone who disagrees with them into the category of preachy environmentalists. I'm not sure that that's accurate, though. Some of us just want to enjoy clean air and water and peace and quiet. How about the intangible value of wilderness? A place where we can go and be completely alone without having to listen to the drone of internal combustion engines buzzing around us 24 hours/day.
Personally, I don't think there's anything wrong with participating in hobbies like car racing, waterskiing, riding dirt bikes, snowmobiling or whatever. I've done several of those things in the past and had fun. So, it's not that I'm trying to say people who choose to have those types of hobbies are bad people. What I'd like to see, though, is a gradual increase in fuel taxes, so that people who choose to engage in hobbies that use a lot of fuel or who choose to commute to work in fuel inefficient vehicles pay more in taxes. That tax money should be used for things that mitigate the effects of the over consumption of fuel.
I think this attitude is based on assumptions which are incorrect. Namely, that those hobbies are somehow burning tons of gasoline and worse for the environment than other things.
A person taking a single flight across the Atlantic uses more gasoline than my in-laws use all summer with their boating hobby. You have a family on board? Perhaps more than most people use in driving all year.
Now are hobbies low hanging fruits to pick off other people? Sure, of course it is easy to point at things like boating and say "hah! You are ruining the environment." But at least acknowledge that for most people, the overwhelming impact will be transportation and not their hobbies. A $1/gallon fuel tax means that an overseas flight will have about $200 more in fuel cost alone, per person. It means my summer boating activities might cost $20-$30 more year year. My last pleasure airline flight was 10+ years ago. A single international flight for a couple will likely consume more gasoline than my boating interest consumes over an entire decade.
Speaking of travel, if we look at the
data for the past year we see that there were about 900 billion passenger miles flown in 2015. An
older source says that about 50% of airline travel is purely for personal. So about 450 billion personal miles flown. In
2014 there were 10,960,861 total watercraft registrations for "mechanically propelled" boats (page 69). The vast majority of boat registrations are less than 26 feet long.
Looking at averages, assuming 90 MPG per airline passenger (so more weighted towards
short distances) this results in 450,000,000,000 / 90 = 500 million gallons of gasoline burned when flying, purely for pleasure. This would require an average of 450 gallons gasoline to be burned by every single boat
registration in the United States to equal the total gasoline burned via pleasure flying for every boat. Note this is not boats actively being used, simply registered boats. I suspect a large percentage of boats have 0% or nearly 0% usage.
The reason I'm saying all this is because on the whole boats (or motorcycling/snowmobiling/etc) are a very, very, very small piece of the puzzle related to reducing overall gasoline usage in the United States. But it is far easier to pick on hobbies that other people have which are visible and tangible than recognize that many "hidden" gasoline usages (such as the US military using about 12.5M gallons per day).
If taxing gasoline is the means to lower overall gasoline usage, it will impact the number of airmiles flown much before it affects the overwhelming majority of people with hobbies such as boating, snowmobiling, motorbiking, etc. So if your goal is to pick on the most visible things regardless of impact, then sure, you can lament boating. You can preach at me and judge me for liking to be out on the water. But if the goal really is to reduce gasoline usage a meaningful amount, boating and other hobbies are really not the place to start. The problem that I (and presumably other folks have) is that focusing on our "destroying the environment" hobbies/interests use a nearly insignificant amount of gasoline compared to many other things while ignoring the areas to make actual impact is... pointless.
You want to tax gasoline to reduce usage? Instead of taxing gasoline, tax registration on large vehicles - whether cars or boats or planes or trucks. Make registration exponentially proportional to fuel efficiency of what is being registered. This should include all forms of transportation, especially the "hidden" ones like airlines. Want to register a 747? You will pay an insane amount in fuel tax surcharge. This won't be popular but will at least be less hypocritical and more universally applied.
Until then, I'll keep up my ~15 gallon of gas a year fishing hobby. And maybe even (gasp) continue the ~50 gallon a year tubing/waterskiing. And you are free to categorically judge away.