By Michelle Naranjo 

Today, I went into a Dollar Tree and found canned plant-based tuna. Sriracha flavor, to be exact. 

It’s not a frequent shopping destination for me because we are fortunate enough to have nearby an independent outlet grocer that carries locally sourced fresher, seasonal produce, and soon-to-be-expired shelf and freezer goods from retailers like Whole Foods, Wegmans and Stop N Shop. We are educated, sort of snobby, gourmet GenX on a budget. 

Change is inevitable. Even limited income households like mine in rural Pennsylvania are moving towards sustainability. Many, if not most, are opting for smaller footprints in the shadow of the minority of coal-rolling, brand-brandishing personalities who will recoil at any idea of government-anything that doesn’t come with a message that freedom is more of a right than liberty and buy “Live, Laugh, Love,”  or “All Lives Matter” yard signs. 

Just observe the growing number of RAM and Jeep vehicles in your own neighborhood. 

But these people are socially loud, despite being a growing minority. 

Maybe the politicians who would reject an increase of gas taxes because they are following their base are truly out of date, pandering to an old-school constituency with the worst intentions. Intentions that favor Big Oil.

Maybe, if new car manufacturers (the same ones that made the government create our roads) were paying their fair share of taxes -- or even using government tax credits allotted to them to build alternative energy vehicles -- a gas tax wouldn’t be necessary. 

Maybe, just maybe, alt-energy cars should be affordable at the expense of automakers’ overall profit, instead of letting them glorify high-powered, fuel-guzzling vehicles as a lame sign of Being American. 

New taxes on gas, diesel, corporations, and the wealthiest are taxation with the right representation with this proposed gas tax increase.

It’s time, regardless of pushback from oil-heavy states and corporations, to tax what is the least sustainable in order to pave the way for a truly healthier future. 

Full disclosure: I inherited monthly oil income from my great-great grandmother, probably owe more taxes to a county in Texas than it is worth. I reap about $300 a month in income from it and hope I can be the generation to see it die. 

Also, the fake tuna is just fine. And I'm a food snob.