To the extent that electrified transport offers an alternative to oil, such as subways, trolleys, and trains actually do today, and electric cars might hypothetically do tomorrow, taxing their motivepower can only make the situation worse.
He envisaged "an entire generation opting-out of the real world and a paradoxical decrease in productivity as the people who provide the motive economic power no longer are in touch with the realities of the real world".