U.S. Needs a $1 a Gallon Gas Tax, Says Nobel Laureate

What will get the U.S. moving toward greenhouse gas reductions and greater energy autonomy? A $1 a gallon gas tax, says Arno Penzias.

Penzias, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1978 (with Robert Wilson) for confirming the Big Bang and who now works as a VC at NEA, says that the tax should then be paid directly to the states. (I ran into Penzias in the hallway at the Cleantech Forum taking place in San Francisco.)

What else needs to be done? Smart grid. “We’ve got to have a grid� that works better, he said. Penzias is also something of an advocate for nuclear for providing baseline power.

New technologies, he added, aren’t necessarily the answer nor do we necessarily have the luxury of time to wait for them. Greenhouse gas reductions could be accomplished with existing technologies. They just have to be implemented.

“We’ve got to make do with what we have,� he said.

Getting infrastructure implemented in the U.S., however, isn’t easy. He said he’s been waiting for better cell coverage at his vacation house for a while.