You guys aren't paying attention. The Republicans have been trying to change this for years. Most of it is in the President's energy proposal he sent to the hill. I think the House passed it but don't know about the Senate.
I happened upon Bill O'Reilly's radio program yesterday . I had never listened to him and I knew the voice sounded vaguely familiar but I thought it was some local liberal. He was complaining that the government didn't dictate what kind of cars we could drive and bashing "big oil". I thought this is the most ill informed and illogical idiot I ever heard. Several callers had called him Bill but that didn't ring a bell. Finally one called him O'Reilly and the light went on.
I find this statement lacking something when I look around and see that our country's leaders are predominently Republican. We control the House, the Senate, the Presidency, the governorships and have appointed six of the nine SCOTUS justices. We the people are reacting to the lunacy in our government, but the "conservative" pols we've put in charge aren't doing the things we put them there to do. I know that Bush has made a small attempt to drill in Alaska, but I haven't seen him turn it into the extremely important national security issue that it really is, and hammer away at the brain-dead Kerrys and Kennedys who stand in the way of making America energy independent.
"He was complaining that the government didn't dictate what kind of cars we could drive and bashing "big oil". I thought this is the most ill informed and illogical idiot I ever heard. Several callers had called him Bill but that didn't ring a bell. Finally one called him O'Reilly and the light went on."
This is correct - Big oil does not drive the train of what cars we as individuals drive. Personally, I refuse to drive vehicles that get poor fuel efficiency. I drive a VW Jetta turbo Diesel - 45mpg, year 2000. my car before that was fuel efficient as well as the previous one.
When oil - and by extension gasoline - was cheap, no one cared about fuel efficiency - now, with prices the way they are, the populace at large cares - this population (voter constituency) as well as the other way we vote - with our check books - will ultimately drive fuel efficiency on a loarge scale, and we are seeing it happen right now - Detroit doesn't know what to do with all the power-pushing gas guzzling luxury SUV's sitting in stock. Used car dealerships get more and more in on trade every day.
I just laugh.
This is the wakeup call. NOW is time for the blow-hards in congress to ACT - not pontificate upon the merits of this technology over that. That's the job of business - to develop new & improved technology.
Sorry for the rant.