Gas-guzzler

The term gas-guzzler, part of our vernacular to mean a car with burns copious and excessive amounts of fuel, came into formal legal usage in the U.S. when Congress established Gas Guzzler Tax provisions in the Energy Tax Act of 1978 to discourage the production and purchase of fuel-inefficient vehicles. Fuel efficiency standards were in part driven by the oil embargo of 1973. The gas guzzler tax had applied only to cars (not trucks) and was collected by the IRS. Other countries have followed suit and introduced their own version of a gas-guzzler tax such as Canada's "green levy".
Energy Tax Act
The US government introduced the Gas Guzzler Tax as a part of the Energy Tax Act. The tax was introduced to tax the purchase of inefficient vehicles at the same time that Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards were introduced. The Gas Guzzler Tax applies only to vehicles classified as cars, as opposed to light trucks. Since 1991, cars with a combined fuel economy rating under have been subject to the tax. Light trucks, which includes virtually all sport-utility vehicles, pickup trucks and vans, are not subject to the tax.
Criticism
The primary criticism of the tax is that it does not apply to light trucks. As a result, relatively few vehicles are subject to the tax. When the tax was first introduced, light trucks were viewed as primarily utilitarian work related vehicles. With the shift towards consumer uses for SUVs and pickups, as automakers discontinued the large body-on-frame sedans and station wagons long preferred by many Americans to meet the CAFE standards the original rationale for exempting trucks is considered invalid by critics of the current tax law. Many Americans, especially soccer moms, who once drove the large cars and station wagons that were classified as gas guzzlers switched to equally inefficient upscale four-door SUVs, crossovers, or minivans that are classified as light trucks and therefore exempt from the tax.

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