Seattle Times: DURING the past several months, gas prices rose dramatically to more than $4 per gallon, and then fell below $2 — even lower than before the rise. Our total cost of gas is now only 40 percent of the tax on gas in Europe. Meanwhile, our state is looking at a projected budget deficit of almost $6 billion. A price of $2 per gallon is far too low a price for gas, especially when one includes all the costs to our society implicit in the burning of fossil fuels, such as global warming, air …