First of all, you’re talking twenty cents a gallon, which is laughably small when put in context of $3 a gallon gas prices… well under ten percent.

Second, the monies forgone by the government (state/federal/whoever) are either going to add to the debt (meaning we’ll have to pay it back, WITH INTEREST!), or else are going to collected by taxing somewhere else. These “government giveaways” invariably are coming out of OUR OWN POCKETS, one way or another, and usually at a HIGHER deferred price.

Third, and this is the REAL stinker, the ballooning profits of the oil companies demonstrate pretty conclusively that their pricing has little to do with their acquisition, refining, distribution or other costs… they’re charging the high prices they are simply because THEY CAN. If the price at the pump becomes twenty cents cheaper, then what is going to happen is that the wholesale price of oil will go up twenty cents a gallon (count on it!).

So the result is that we’re NOT rebating money to the consumer, BUT IN FACT transferring yet more government money (our tax dollars!) straight into the pockets of the oil companies!

If we want to really bring down prices in a more meaningful way, the more meaningful ways to do that would include:

1) Aggressive upgrading of CAFE standards for new automobiles, including a stiff “gas guzzler” tax for any automobiles (and including light trucks, vans, SUVs, etc) that get less than (say) 15 miles per gallon (and that number should be increased with each model year);

2) A very aggressive “windfall profits/price gouging” law to force oil companies to pay penalties amounting to virtually all of their ill-gotten gains (i.e. earnings beyond “reasonable and proper”). Much the way the telecommunications industry used to have their prices approved, assuring them a reasonable profit (but not insanely more than that).

3) An Apollo-style program to get the USA off of fossil fuels. This would probably involve major research into nuclear fusion, as well as a heavy push into wind energy and other alternative non-fossil-based energy sources.

If people want to spend less at the pump, they need to buy less gas. That’s not what people want to hear, but it is the only way to lower prices.

In the long-term, people need to buy vehicles that use less gasoline, preferably no gasoline at all.