LA Times

4 Of 5 Top Papers Call For Federal Gas Tax Hike
By Joseph Rossell | January 12, 2015 | 11:27 AM EST

Four out of five top U.S. newspapers have called for federal gas tax hikes on the editorial page since oil and gas prices began falling significantly June 19, 2014.

In spite of polls that show most Americans oppose it, The Washington Post, USA Today, The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times newspapers have all published editorials that called for increasing the gas tax.  Gas prices fell from $3.675 on June 19, 2014, to $2.168 on January 9, 2015, according to AAA. The Wall Street Journal was the only publication not to editorialize in favor of higher gas taxes of the five national newspapers.

Columnist Finds ‘Downside’ to Low Gas Prices, They ‘Undo Progress’ on Green Energy
By Joseph Rossell | December 23, 2014 | 12:03 PM EST

While low gas prices prompted strong sales last month of trucks and SUVs produced by American automakers, one Los Angeles Times columnist found multiple experts who viewed this as bad news. And his criticism was published online by The Detroit News.

Columnist David Lazarus promoted the views of multiple experts critical of low gas prices. One claimed those prices were actually bad news because they undermined “progress” in green energy. The Detroit News ran his column on its website December 21, despite the fact that Detroit’s economy still relies heavily on the auto industry. The unemployment rate in Detroit was at 8.1 percent in October 2014, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The national rate that month was 5.5 percent.