The Spectacle Blog
Hey, it was the best eye-catching headline I could come up with since my John Locke Foundation friend and former colleague Roy Cordato nailed it with, “Obama Administration Trades Blood for Oil.” As he explains:
While the country was focused on the debt extension deal being hashed out between Congress and the White House, President Obama reached an agreement with the auto industry to raise what are called Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. These are laws that mandate the average mileage that a fleet of cars sold by a particular manufacturer must achieve. Under these new rules, the fleet standard would increase to 54.5 mpg by 2025. Just for comparison, the 2011 2-passenger Smart Cart is advertising 41 mpg on the highway. The problem is that if automobiles are going to meet this standard, the auto companies will have to seriously downsize their fleet. The reason why the Smart Car even gets the mileage it does is because it’s so small and light…
Roy goes on to note that National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that for every 100 lbs. reduced from a car that weighs 3,000 lbs, traffic deaths rise by 5 percent. Both the liberal Brookings Institution and the National Academy of Science — you know, one of the great scientific authorities held up by Al Gore and friends as authoritative bodies about the inevitability of catastrophic global warming due to human-caused carbon dioxide emissions — back up the NHTSA findings on traffic fatalities.
As Roy says, President Obama is undeterred. “After all, blood on the highway can be cleaned up, but once an additional amount of CO2 is released in the atmosphere, it will stay there for centuries.”
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Lullabys, Legends and Lies| 8.4.11 @ 1:38PM
Leftists Commie Democrats love killing people, be they unborn people, or through their policies, or through their policies that lead to crime that kill other people, or on the highways in defense of their religious Green Church beliefs, they just can't get enough death. I hope they all run out and buy these new deathtraps as soon as they go on sale, so that the initial fatalities will all be,... umm them!!
Watch out for my Town Car, it's got a lot of inertia when it hits small mosquitos at 70MPH!!
Mark in LA| 8.4.11 @ 2:02PM
More scare tactic nonsense. We also know that technology has also made cars safer with special crush zones and we are now installing collision avoidance systems.
While 54 MPH may be a bridge too far, technology can be improved and letting the "free market" do its thing has never really worked. The car companies always screamed that it could never be done and it was eventually done.
This isn't entirely about the green thing either. Eventually with the collapse of the dollar, gas is going to be 10 dollars a gallon. How many working people will be able to afford that with cars that get 19 MPH?
Paul McGrath| 8.4.11 @ 2:15PM
Perhaps it might be a good idea to see to it that the dollar doesn't collapse. That might be a good start.
But more than that, people don't want to drive small cars. There are several cars on the market right now that likely get very good mileage, but you rarely see them because nobody wants them.
The government is now going to force auto companies to make cars that nobody wants and that nobody is going to buy, and guess what? The auto companies will go bankrupt again.
The answer is, absolutely: let the free market do its thing.
David C| 8.4.11 @ 5:57PM
"scare tactic nonsense"
This charge coming from the Left, masters of scare tactic nonsense? Well, at least is comes from a source that speakes from experience. :/
"We also know that technology has also made cars safer with special crush zones and we are now installing collision avoidance systems."
All of that fancy new technology may make today's small cars safer than yesterday's small cars. But smaller cars are still less safe than larger ones.
So where was the scare tactic?
MikeBee| 8.4.11 @ 6:16PM
Mark,
I was raised in the L.A. area. Been reading those newspapers out there and believin' everything they say, again, right?
Studies have been performed of the environment in free market countries vs. the environment in statist, socialist countries. The environment is far cleaner in free market countries than in statist countries, largely because the free market has allowed men in these countries to develop technologies which clean up the environment. BTW, the exhaust coming out of today's automobiles is far cleaner than the air we breathe.
We would have $1 per gallon gasoline today if the liberal Democrats would let us do two things: 1) dig for oil in this country; and 2) build new refineries. The largest known oil reserves in the world exist in North Dakota, and the Democrats will not let us dig for oil there. The last time I checked, it wasn't because there was anyone living up there, or because there was beautiful, pristine country up there, either. No, this $10 per gallon gasoline that you cite may happen only because of liberal Democrats with their foot hard on the brake pedal. Now, who's looking out for the poor, Democrats whose policies BEG for $10 per gallon gasoline, or Republicans whose policies could return us to $1 per gallon gasoline?
You've got to listen to your Daddy. Don't believe everything you read in the newspapers, especially in L.A. They have an agenda they're pushing, and are hoping that there a lot of stupid people out there who will buy their line, hook, line, and sinker.
Paul McGrath| 8.4.11 @ 4:10PM
Here's another thing. I just looked up the Smart Car on Cars.com. The Smart Car is tiny. It seats two, and trunk space is almost non-existent. It's got a tiny engine and three cylinders. The wheel base is 74 inches, which is unbelievable. Only two people can fit in the car but with this wheel base, both of them will be uncomfortable.
The price is no bargain either. It compares with just about any other compact. And, more incredibly, it gets 33 mpg in the city, and 41 on the freeway. So this tiny, sardine-can, horrible-looking and dangerous POS doesn't even meet the AVERAGE mpg that the government is requiring that auto companies meet by 2025.
It is like living in Alice in Wonderland. We are being governed by people who live in a fantasy-world, a nuthouse. An insane asylum.
Paul McGrath| 8.4.11 @ 4:24PM
The Honda Civic Hybrid comes closer to the mark, mileage-wise, at 40mpg city and 45mpg highway. This is still 20% less than the average that will be required by Uncle Sam in 2025. But this one definitely ain't cheap. A 2009 with 17,000 miles on it is listed on Cars.com at $24,999.00. Christ, I could buy a very nice new car for this amount, one with some elbow room as well.
Plus, the Hybrid Civic is also a tiny little thing. Every one of us, every single American, is going to have to be driving one of these things or something like it by 2025.
No, it doesn't have to be. Abolish Obama. The only answer.
Paul McGrath| 8.4.11 @ 4:36PM
The Toyota Prius gets a little closer to the mark. City mpg is, weirdly, 51mpg, and highway is 48mpg. Still below the standards required by our friends in the federal government by 2025. 1.8 liter engine with 4(!) cylinders. But it is still a tiny, ugly looking little thing. And this one is really, really not cheap. A used 2010 Prius will cost you 31K. 31K, for this.
Here's the bottom line. I have worked for thirty-five years, have raised two children, have invested my savings carefully, am close to paying off my mortgage, and am finally, FINALLY, ready to enjoy the fruits of my labor. I want to splurge a little bit.
And now, after driving used, economy-cars my entire career--my choice, my choice--you're telling me that I am going to have to drive a goddamn Toyota Prius?
MikeBee| 8.4.11 @ 6:21PM
The CAFE standards are setting the stage for the future of car manufacturing and car buying in the U.S. It looks a lot like this: automobiles will be made in places like China, to avoid the CAFE standards demanded of cars made in the U.S. (Oh, this already has happened?) Then, to avoid a mandate that all cars SOLD in the U.S. follow irrational CAFE standards, cars will be purchased online from countries overseas, like China, and delivered to your door. What? My car wasn't made or sold here; leave me alone, Mr. U.S. CAFE!
George S| 8.4.11 @ 8:22PM
Global warming kills the planet. Smart Cars kill only people. Notice the subtle difference.
DLB| 8.5.11 @ 6:44AM
"Global Warming" is a hoax.