Believe it or not - Europeans propose to tax personal fuel consumption

Whilst the U.S. Congress dithers on climate change legislation, the leading organization of independent socialist states on the planet -- that would be the European Union -- has actually put a proposal on the table to tax the personal use of fuel by actual people!

Yes indeed: Europe bids to tax personal fuel consumption

There's a reason for this idea, and it isn't crackpot:

"The idea is being pushed against a backdrop of disquiet in some European Union member states about ambitious commission targets for bloc-wide aid to help developing countries ahead of deadlocked international talks in December.

There was strong support for the 'Laszlo levy,' as one wag immediately dubbed it, from Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg, who said a similar idea in the Nordic countries has worked well since the 1990s."

and also:

"Ministers discussed ideas, including emissions levels and national incomes, aimed at working out how to come up with funds aimed at convincing developing countries to sign up to a post-2012 global climate pact.

The commission reckons five billion to seven billion euros will be needed each year between 2010 and 2012, with the annual figure likely to hit 100 billion euros (roughly 150 billion dollars) by 2020.

Going into the talks, Polish Finance Minister Jan Rostowski said it was "totally unacceptable that the poor countries of Europe should help the rich countries of Europe to help the poor countries in the rest of the world."

(Borg is the Swedish finance minister, not the Universe-threatening techno-androids from Star Trek TNG.)