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Yahoo! Green has an article called 6 stupidly simple steps to save billions of gallons of gas. The article mostly appears to be a collection of ideas, maybe one of which might be as simple as they say, but there is a sting in the tail.
" 6. Increase mileage to 35 mpg = 55,000 million gallons of gas by 2015
This needs to be said. The current average fuel economy of an American car is 22 mpg. It would be lower if there were no law in place requiring that efficiency. The auto industry has been fighting any increase for decades. We finally have a law on the books that will increase the average to 35 mpg by 2020.
"But if we, in America, had 35-mpg cars today, like they currently do in Europe, we would use 55 BILLION less gallons of gas. Looking back through the rest of the list, this trivializes the rest of the options,"
What they don't tell you, of course, is that Europe does not have a Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulation on their automobile manufacturers and importers. The driving force behind their fuel efficient cars is heavy taxation on gasoline and diesel.
Instead of forcing automakers to make more complicated, more expensive cars that will meet this ridiculous mandate and still be saleable to a public that still wants big cars, Europe has reduced consumption of petroleum products by targeting the users of petroleum products, namely the car owners, who buy small cars and diesel cars because those are the cars they can afford to keep fuelled.
Therefore, it seems as if the answer is not, as the "Oh, it's all Detroit's fault" crowd want to say, an increase in CAFE and a consequent increase in car prices and complexity (item 6) but in item 3:
"3. More expensive gas = 450 million gallons of gas (so far)
OK, this isn't necessarily the best solution to our problems, especially since most people who really need to drive can't afford to pay much more for gas. But 2007 showed the first decrease in the number of miles traveled since the gas crisis of the '70s. As gas prices sored to upward of $3 per gallon, people actually drove less. The amount driven dropped by about 10 billion miles. At an average fleet efficiency of 22 mpg, that's 450 million gallons of gas saved."
Taxing fuel is a far more equitable way of sharing the burden, which is why it is so heavily avoided since, in a democracy, the equitable sharing of a burden is generally avoided in favour of shovelling the burden onto a minority. The burden, however, comes right back around in the form of more expensive cars, which makes the car companies even more of a scapegoat by people accusing them of price gouging.
" 6. Increase mileage to 35 mpg = 55,000 million gallons of gas by 2015
This needs to be said. The current average fuel economy of an American car is 22 mpg. It would be lower if there were no law in place requiring that efficiency. The auto industry has been fighting any increase for decades. We finally have a law on the books that will increase the average to 35 mpg by 2020.
"But if we, in America, had 35-mpg cars today, like they currently do in Europe, we would use 55 BILLION less gallons of gas. Looking back through the rest of the list, this trivializes the rest of the options,"
What they don't tell you, of course, is that Europe does not have a Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulation on their automobile manufacturers and importers. The driving force behind their fuel efficient cars is heavy taxation on gasoline and diesel.
Instead of forcing automakers to make more complicated, more expensive cars that will meet this ridiculous mandate and still be saleable to a public that still wants big cars, Europe has reduced consumption of petroleum products by targeting the users of petroleum products, namely the car owners, who buy small cars and diesel cars because those are the cars they can afford to keep fuelled.
Therefore, it seems as if the answer is not, as the "Oh, it's all Detroit's fault" crowd want to say, an increase in CAFE and a consequent increase in car prices and complexity (item 6) but in item 3:
"3. More expensive gas = 450 million gallons of gas (so far)
OK, this isn't necessarily the best solution to our problems, especially since most people who really need to drive can't afford to pay much more for gas. But 2007 showed the first decrease in the number of miles traveled since the gas crisis of the '70s. As gas prices sored to upward of $3 per gallon, people actually drove less. The amount driven dropped by about 10 billion miles. At an average fleet efficiency of 22 mpg, that's 450 million gallons of gas saved."
Taxing fuel is a far more equitable way of sharing the burden, which is why it is so heavily avoided since, in a democracy, the equitable sharing of a burden is generally avoided in favour of shovelling the burden onto a minority. The burden, however, comes right back around in the form of more expensive cars, which makes the car companies even more of a scapegoat by people accusing them of price gouging.
location: home
vibe: 
pissed off
pissed offsomething strange
weird
tired
devious
embarrassed
tired
accomplished
sick
blah
frustrated
bleary-eyed
