Fuel Efficiency And Politics

The government is poking it's collective nose into the business of auto makers and telling them that they need to come up with better fuel efficient cars. The problem isn't the car manufacturers, it's the rules that they need to play by.

For example: The rules currently state that the entire fleet of cars/trucks/SUV's must be at 27.5 and 22.2 mpg. What that means is, is that Ford could come out with a car that gets 100mpg, then sell NINE (9) more cars that get 20mpg and still be above the fleet average for cars.

And guess what? Those 9 cars are going to suck down the gas faster then that 1 100mpg car will ever save. The solution? Require ALL cars, trucks, SUV's to get X amount of mpg. I'm not saying that a full sized truck should get 50mpg, but all passenger cars shouldn't have a problem getting say 35-40mpg and light trucks such as the Ford Ranger getting 25-30mpg and full size trucks/SUV's getting say 20-25mpg.

Change the rules across the board instead of using averages and that will get this nation off of foreign oil quicker then anything.

The other problem is that auto makers like to whine about how it's not possible.

The Senate bill would require automakers to increase the fuel economy of new cars, sport utility vehicles and pickups beginning in 2020 to a fleet average of 35 miles per gallon. It currently is 27.5 mpg for cars and 22.2 mpg for SUVs and small trucks.

Bullshit. You're telling me that Honda and Toyota took longer then 13 YEARS to develop their hybrid technology? I find that hard to believe. Besides auto industry folks are already touting all electric cars such as the Chevy Volt. Now the Volt is still an experimental, concept car, but if manufactured, it would make the rules about mpg moot. Hell, if each car company came out with an all electric car that got around 150-300 mpc (miles per charge), that cost around the same or just a bit more then a regular car, and had a small gas engine for long trips, we'd be getting of of foreign oil faster then OPEC could blink.

I'm one of the few Republicans that actually advocates us getting off of foreign oil that has "walked the walk". It's not so much that I don't want us dealing with nations that harbor terrorists, it's more that I want to take our business elsewhere because you don't treat customers the way the Middle East has treated us over the years. If you went to Target, and they talked about how you're a horrible person and how you murder babies and other bullshit, you wouldn't shop there anymore would you? The same holds true for the Middle East. You treat us like shit, we'll take our business elsewhere.

Travis
travis@rightwinglunatic.com