英文文章分析：Biden’s Gas Tax Holiday Wouldn’t Make Much Difference

本文雖然不是editorial社論文章，但其風格是很相似的，段落簡短，這不僅(jin) 是報刊文章的風格，也使得觀點更為(wei) 明確突出

President Biden says he’s still committed to reducing U.S. carbon emissions to net zero in the near future. At the moment, though, his overriding priority is to ensure an ample supply of gasoline at reasonable prices.

I’m reminded of the appeal to God by St. Augustine in his youth: “Give me chastity and continency, only not yet.”

聖奧古斯丁的這句話是什麽(me) 意思？這句話跟他的成長背景有何關(guan) 係？這些問題都是在批判性閱讀時需要搞明白的。如果文中沒有答案，那就需要自己上網尋找答案

The White House maintains there’s no inconsistency between wanting more oil now and wanting less later. “We can walk and chew gum at the same time,” a senior administration official told reporters this week, according to Axioses. That may be so, but the mixed message is confusing and demotivating.

On Wednesday Biden asked states to suspend their gasoline taxes, while asking Congress to suspend the federal tax for three months. I wrote a newsletter in March arguing against suspensions of state gasoline taxes.

The only good thing I can find to say about Biden’s plan is that on the federal level it wouldn’t make much difference, at least in the short term.

文章的thesis單獨列出，清晰表達，讓快速瀏覽報刊的讀者不會(hui) 錯誤。同時，讀到這裏，同學們(men) 就可以開始思考一下，本文作者的觀點是否有些過於(yu) 理想化？零碳排放真的能如他希望那樣，一聲令下全國義(yi) 無反顧地投入嗎？批判性閱讀和寫(xie) 作就是要對原文的觀點提出自己的評斷

Here’s why. Suspending the federal tax of 18.4 cents a gallon would reduce the average price paid at the pump by about 4 percent (assuming the entire savings were passed on to drivers). But gasoline accounted for just 4.5 cents of every $1 spent by consumers in April, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. So the net effect on the price index for all goods and services would be only about two-tenths of a percent in the month the plan went into effect. And the benefit would be undone when the holiday ended after 90 days.

本段采用的是典型的“算賬”論證方法，用數字來說明為(wei) 什麽(me) 取消聯邦汽油稅對老百姓沒什麽(me) 實質影響

Worse still, the actual benefit to consumers would be smaller than two-tenths of a percent because refiners and gas stations would pocket some — perhaps most — of the savings from a gas tax holiday. That’s not because of evil corporate machinations; it’s just market forces at work. Refineries have very little extra capacity, according to utilization data collected by the Energy Information Administration. So they can’t significantly raise output if a tax holiday raises demand for gasoline.

By the iron law of supply and demand, if the demand for gas exceeds supply at the tax-free price, the price must move back up to around where it was before to bring the market back into balance. That would mean bigger profits for refiners and retailers.

這兩(liang) 段可以看為(wei) 一段來進行分析：它的organize pattern是我們(men) 課上講過的典型的cause and effect，同學們(men) 可以複習(xi) 一下

“We can cut the tax but it might not change the price,” said Betsey Stevenson, a University of Michigan public policy professor who served in the Obama administration as chief economist in the Labor Department and later as a member of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers.

用數字論證完後，同時引用expert opinion來論證。如我們(men) 課上所講，選取evidence的時候要混合使用

So Biden’s plan wouldn’t help consumers much. The silver lining is that it consequently wouldn’t hurt the environment much. “The bad thing about the policy is also the good thing about it,” said Roberton Williams, an economist at the University of Maryland.

Biden’s proposal is mainly symbolic, to show he cares. It’s of a piece with jawboning（jawbone是什麽(me) 意思？）oil industry executives, releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and his planned trip to Saudi Arabia next month to ask the Saudis to pump more oil. “Ultimately,” Stevenson said, “this isn’t an economic move as much as a political move by the president to show that he’s doing everything he can to bring down gas prices, even if it’s just a few cents.”

這兩(liang) 段都是隻用expert opinion來論證，可以看為(wei) 是上麵的延續。注意，這裏對thesis有一些延申，指出Biden政策的背後實意。是否跑題且不說，但並沒有太多的evidence來支持）

從(cong) 下段開始，可以看為(wei) 有些“跑題”了，跟thesis —— “取消汽油稅的好處不大”——並沒有太大聯係，而是開始論述其壞處，以及Biden應該采取怎樣的能源政策。這也是報刊文章跟一般essay的區別，它往往會(hui) 包含不少標題主題之外的信息，以及大量的呼籲性建議

But that doesn’t mean the proposed holiday is harmless. The message it conveys is that the gas tax is bad for consumers — when in fact the United States and other nations should be raising taxes on fossil fuels to compensate for the air pollution and global warming they cause. The revenue from higher gas taxes could be passed along to the public through reductions in more harmful taxes, such as those on working and investing.

本段建議聽起來很好，但實施起來實際可行嗎？

“Consumers need to understand that it’s risky to be dependent on gas, because its price is so volatile,” Williams wrote in a follow-up email. “If the government steps in any time that gas prices go up, it keeps people from learning that lesson.”

本次汽油漲價(jia) 是屬於(yu) 一般性市場價(jia) 格變化，還是不正常的罕見？如果是後者，不正是應該政府出手的時候嗎？Is it a “lesson” or a punishment to the public?

When Biden castigates oil executives for not producing more, as he did in a letter this month, he opens the door to their entire pro-production agenda: lifting development restrictions on federal lands and waters, speeding up permitting and the like. The American Petroleum Institute is understandably trying to get some leverage out of this episode. “Ahead of his travel to the Middle East next month, we urge the president to prioritize unlocking U.S. energy resources that are the envy of the world instead of increasing reliance on foreign sources,” Mike Sommers, the president of the institute, said in a statement responding to Biden’s letter.

注意學習(xi) 本段引用反方expert opinion來論證自己的觀點

Biden would be better off pivoting to policies that would not blunt the fight against climate change.

本段既是清晰表明本文的“第二個(ge) thesis”，也是一個(ge) 過渡段落，讓讀者知道下麵內(nei) 容跟前文相比有所變化，都是屬於(yu) 呼召性的建議，call for action

One idea is to keep the gas tax at its current level, but provide relief to groups that are harmed the most by high gas prices, such as low- to moderate-income drivers and people in rural America, who have to drive more miles per day on average. That approach preserves market incentives to balance supply and demand while still helping some of the hardest hit.

發政府補助似乎成了疫情以來美國的常態，但最近政府自己都承認，前段時間大發補助福利，直接影響了美國當前的物價(jia) 飛漲。所以，本文這個(ge) “汽油補助”真是一個(ge) good idea嗎？

To be sure, getting the aid right is tricky. If you’re too precise, so that people get exactly what they need to offset the higher cost of gasoline, you end up insulating them from higher prices and they over-consume. If you’re not precise enough, you hand out a lot of aid to people who don’t drive at all and give not very much to people who drive a lot, which invites grumbling. There is no perfect answer.

Another good idea is to focus on reducing demand for gasoline rather than increasing the supply of it. The beauty of that approach is that it’s time-consistent: It helps in both the short and the long runs. A reader of this newsletter, Jeff Perlowitz of Park City, Utah, wrote to me, “My idea is that every state should immediately declare any and all mass transit free.” (That would be instead of declaring state gas tax holidays, as several have done.)

免費公共交通，這不就是變相的“發補助”嗎？誰最後真正來為(wei) 這些補助和福利買(mai) 單？

Drivers can save money without government intervention through common-sense measures such as combining or eliminating trips, joining car pools, taking public transportation and — this one’s simple — driving more slowly. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, fuel efficiency declines rapidly at speeds over 50 miles per hour. “Obeying the speed limit, accelerating and braking gently and gradually, and reading the road ahead can improve the fuel economy of your vehicle by 15 percent to 30 percent at highway speeds and 10 percent to 40 percent in stop-and-go traffic,” the department says. If you drive 75 or 80 miles per hour on the highway, you’re worsening the problem of high fuel prices, not to mention raising the risk of a bad accident.

這段內(nei) 容也是與(yu) thesis關(guan) 係不大的建議，屬於(yu) 報刊文章的特點。我們(men) 在平時寫(xie) argumentative essay的時候，要避免這樣的跑題內(nei) 容

I get that Biden is in a tough spot. Even without politics it would be hard to get the glide path to net zero exactly right: winding down investment in fossil fuels, but not so quickly that the nation runs out of energy. On top of that, high inflation — and in particular high gas prices — could hurt Democrats’ chances in the midterm elections this fall, which would itself lessen the chance of getting responsible climate policies. Given the political situation, Robert Stavins, an environmental economist at Harvard Kennedy School, says that it’s understandable for Biden to take a brief break from his focus on fighting climate change in order to appear to help motorists. “Sometimes kicking the can down the road is the appropriate thing to do,” he said.

本段屬於(yu) 典型的building common ground，站在Biden角度來思考

Maybe. But Biden knows that climate change is a clear and present danger. He has to be careful about taking his foot off the gas.

結尾呼應開頭的thesis，同時用了一個(ge) 雙關(guan) pun，但同學們(men) 在平時寫(xie) 作的時候，使用雙關(guan) pun修辭手段要謹慎，很多美國讀者對pun是持反感態度的。