IS THE END NIGH FOR FUN CARS?
Categories: News, Opinion
Written By: admin
Apropos that it was NPR where I heard that the Obama administration was to announce strict new carbon limits (i.e. fuel economy standards) on new personal vehicles. In 2016, which is just around the corner, cars’ and trucks’ fleet average (known as CAFE) will need to be 35.5mpg. Cars will need to average an astonishing 42mpg—which, basically, nothing but a Prius or Jetta TDI delivers in real-world use. Welcome to the brave new world!
Watching the president’s speech live a few hours later, I had mixed feelings. Yes, we all need to step to the plate and do necessary—if painful—things if we’re to insure continued quality of life for future generations. I applaud his stand. But the continued demonization of the automobile as the main cause of global angers me deeply.
Simply put, our personal cars, trucks, and SUVs contribute about 2% to the total output of CO2. For gosh sake, the cows we consume fart out more damaging gasses! If we really wanted to make an impact, we’d all become vegetarians. Oh yeah—computer networks and server farms are responsible for about the same amount of damage as our automobiles, according to independent studies in England.
To make matters worse, these new, more frugal vehicles will take awhile to replace the ones we’re driving (there are hundreds of millions on the road right now, and the current new car market is about 10 million per year—you do the math). So the actual impact will be miniscule. In any case, it will be swallowed up by all the developing nations’ newly mobilized masses driving their Tata Nanos and the like.
If our glorious leaders really wanted to make a dent, they’d impose a $2.00/gallon gas tax. People would drive less, use public transport or shanks’ mare more, and the monies from such a scheme could pay for alternative energy endeavors. Which leads me to my final point…
Without the gumption to impose such taxes (once the economy recovers, of course), these mandated vehicles will find little market acceptance. Let’s face it: not everyone can use—or wants—a Prius, no matter what the Peoples’ Republic of California’s apparatchiks think.
