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A lot of knee jerk reactions here....

If people actually read what he said, it makes some sense.

For years, the government has mandated more fuel efficient cars through CAFE standards. However at the same time there was absolutely no financial incentive for the consumer to join in and pursue fuel efficiency. Instead, we’ve been using technological gains to get more and more power.

You make an excellent point, B Knotts, about CAFE altering the free market. It has helped make certain vehicles (namely station wagons) nearly disappear and be replaced by less efficient trucks (SUVs) so that makers could meet CAFE requirements.

So when you look at it, the government has decided that we should try to be more fuel efficient, but the methods they have chosen have helped cause some shift to less efficient vehicles, and low fuel prices have done nothing to help persuade customers to make fuel efficient choices.

So what do you do? Well you could let the free market rule and just remove CAFE restrictions. That might bring back some more fuel efficient vehicles, but will do nothing to help persuade people to help kick our dependence on foreign oil, so long as gas is cheap.

The other option is to make gas expensive. That would be far more in line with a comprehensive energy policy designed to make us more independent and stop bankrolling nations like Venezuela and Iran.

But that means giving the government lots more money.

UNLESS you use the extra tax revenue to do something like reduce payroll taxes. That might work - last summer with gas at $4 a gallon, we all got $600/person stimulus checks. That check was enough to cover the difference for the average driver going 12,000 miles a year at 25 mpg for a price increase from $2.75 to $4 per gallon. So that presented essentially a break-even scenario for most, but people ran for fuel efficient vehicles.