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Automotive News & Views How The 35 mpg Law By 2020 Will Affect The Cars We Will Drive
538 messages, Last post on Jul 31, 2008 at 6:28 AM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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Replying to: qbrozen (Dec 21, 2007 6:26 am) Yes! Of course. Why is it that you and I seem to be the only people who realize this? There is no free lunch. Energy has to be produced usually by burning something. Either in your engine or in a power plant. Both pollute. The only exception would be renewables like hydro. Too bad all the fish-rights groups are tearing down the power dams.
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"...GREED..." You seem to imply that greed is the only human emotion that drives inventiveness. There's also creativity, curiosity, ambition, a desire to explore new frontiers, etc. I doubt that greed was the main motivator for Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, etc. While it may have been one factor in their careers, its not necessarily a negative, in the context of their great contributions. Similarly, I think the major oil companies, while far, far from perfect, have contributed mightily to the standard of living of millions.
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Replying to: hpmctorque (Dec 22, 2007 4:18 pm) I think you are right. Many here like to blame all the woes on the oil companies. While some have large reserves, many are buying oil on the open market to refine and sell to US. If we are buying 66% of our oil from other countries, that is not the fault of the oil companies. Most of the oil we buy is state owned and controlled. If you want to bad mouth our oil suppliers we need to say how greedy, Canada, Mexico, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia are. Then you add all the fickled states like California that have to have designer gasoline that adds a lot in the refining process. Oh, and now they have to add ethanol to keep the folks in the Midwest happy and growing more corn. The real greed can be traced back to the guy at the pump that thinks we should have gas cheaper than anyone else in the world. That does not endear us to the guy paying $6 per gallon. I guess if we were to develop more of our known reserves we could take a little bite out of the foreign oil producers. Still just a short term solution. |
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Replying to: hpmctorque (Dec 22, 2007 4:18 pm) |
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Reasonable people can disagree on what motivates brilliant people to accomplish great things. I think the hierarchy of motivating factors and traits vary from brilliant person to brilliant person, Viciousness and greed could be the primary motivating factors for some (although I doubt even that's true for many), but not for others. Whatever moves inventive minds, it'll be required in spades to achieve energy independence.
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Replying to: hpmctorque (Dec 23, 2007 5:55 am) On the other hand, it doesn't take much effort or brilliance of mind to drive 5 mph slower or turn off a few light bulbs. Conservation must be a dull bullet since many people seem to be relying on a silver one to bail them out of any energy crunches. Even if you go into full-on land on the moon mode, that's still going to eat up a decade. Shoot, it took two decades just to up CAFE a bit.
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Replying to: steve_ (Dec 23, 2007 6:58 am) There are people that believe the silver bullet exists and if you elect the right politician we will have access to it. Trying to conserve myself I ran into an obstacle. I was going to change out the incandescent light bulbs in my Hampton Bay ceiling lighted fans. I put in 2 new CFL lights and they flickered off and on. So I was stuck using 60 watt incandescent. There has to be millions of those fans installed in American homes.
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Replying to: gagrice (Dec 23, 2007 8:08 am) I figure burning night lights (or using lighted switches) is cheaper than breaking a few toes now and then.  I'm curious to see what the LED craze will have on car lights in general. |
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I agree on the need for conservation, but I think that a fuel tax increase, with offsetting sales tax decreases, would be a much more effective and efficient way to achieve conservation than the 35 mpg by 2020 law. When all is said and done, the 35 mpg law is unlikely to be more effective in achieving its consumption reduction goals than the '75 CAFE law has been. Sure, fuel economy went up, but consumption went up even more. The new law could have a similar unintended effect. How? If the law succeeds in improving fuel economy, which it will (in conjunction, lest we forget, with ~$90/barrel oil), it will put downward pressure on oil prices. And what happens when prices go down? Well, demand increases, of course, and greater demand = greater consumption. Look, I don't presume to know what the net effect of the 35 mpg law will be, but I think we squandered an opportunity to do something better.
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Automotive News & Views How The 35 mpg Law By 2020 Will Affect The Cars We Will Drive
