No more gas hogs in LaLa Land

Waco Tribune-Herald ^ | Rowland Nethaway

[dubyagee]

No gas hogs in LaLa Land
ROWLAND NETHAWAY Senior editor

Californians are strutting about congratulating themselves for their new state law requiring higher automobile fuel efficiency.

They believe that California's new state law will force car manufacturers to stop producing gas-guzzling vehicles responsible for global warming.

The logic behind the new law requiring greater fuel efficiency from car manufacturers is a faith-based belief that the automobile industry is involved in a giant conspiracy to deny the public fuel-efficient cars.

Ford, General Motors and the other car manufacturers, according to these anti-big business addicts, have the secret to 300-miles-per-gallon internal combustion engines locked away in a safe somewhere. The car industries make immoral profits by keeping this information from the public.

These urban-myth conspiracy theories have been around since the invention of automobiles.

Since I was a boy I've heard stories about the invention of new spark plugs, carburetors or fuel additives that could allow cars to run for hundreds of miles on a gallon of gas.

Generally, the stories included specific details about how the inventors of these miracles had been paid off and threatened to keep their mouths shut, if not simply murdered. Their supposed inventions were guarded more closely than the Coca-Cola recipe.

Same conspiracies, different era

Fifty years ago, these fanciful tales were voiced by run-of-the-mill drug store and pool hall conspiracy buffs.

In recent years, it has been the greenies, environmental groups, anti-globalists and Californians who think that government laws can force General Motors et al to finally release these secret fuel-efficient technologies.

It was cockamamie nonsense in 1952 and it remains just as harebrained today.

Car manufacturers wouldn't have to offer zero percent interest rates to sell cars if they could build cars with the size and power that buyers want and also get hundreds of miles per gallon.

Every car, SUV and truck owner in the nation would line up to buy such a vehicle.

The oil industry might not be pleased with 300-miles-per-gallon cars and trucks, but, hey, that's the breaks. There will always be uses for oil.

Since no knowledgeable person expects revolutionary efficiency breakthroughs on the venerable internal combustion engine, about the only way to increase fuel efficiency is to decrease safety by making cars and trucks smaller and lighter.

Anti-SUV acolytes may want to see everyone in scooter cars and public buses, but that's a hard sell to motorists who don't feel better about themselves driving around in lightweight, cramped, underpowered vehicles.

The last I heard, the car manufacturers said they would contest the new California fuel-efficiency law.

I suggest that the automobile industry simply ignore the California law.

Californians think their state law will force the car industry worldwide to build cars to California's standards.

Instead, car manufacturers should notify all the car dealers in California that they will be out of business on the day the state's new fuel efficiency standards go into effect.

If Californians want to own a new car, they will have to move to another state.

After a while, California would look like Havana, Cuba, where the cars are caught in a 1950s time warp.

Californians want the rest of the nation to pay to subsidize their lifestyles, which includes a gluttonous appetite for oil, electricity and water taken from other states.

There will be a lot less self-righteous strutting in LaLa Land if the auto industry simply ignores California's new fuel-efficiency law.

Rowland Nethaway's columns appear on Wednesdays and Fridays. E-mail: RNethaway@wacotrib.com

[Nuke'm Glowing]

" Somewhere around the early 90's the Japanese, particularly Honda, started making cars to live longer than the people owning them. Many of those get sold used with 150K miles on them and still run like new, and can be bought for as little as $2000 here and there. That's one possibility for a second car, there are others. If you use the stupid SUV properly, i.e. only when there's some real need for it, the thing will last you 20 years. Surely that can't be a BAD thing..."

Thank you Mao for assigning vehicles to the commune.

" Dependance on foreign oil compromises America's foreign policy and allows things like 9/11 to happen."

That has got to be the stupidest comment ever posted on FR, without question. We have a dependency on foreign oil by and large because tree huggers like yourself have limited expansion of our refining system and drilling in "enviromentally sensitve" areas even though there has never been a spill in one of these ares of any consequence due to drilling.

"100 years ago, the kinds of people who did that were riding around the desert on camels and living in tents, and did not have the financial wherewithal to attempt such feats."

Based on your theories of transportation, I'm sure you'd love to assign us camels and dictate that we live in tents too so we would all be more sennnnnnnnnnnsitive to the earth.

"If we were to do EVERYTHING within our power to eliminate the use of foreign oil, including developing every possible domestic energy resource AND get rid of bad habits like driving around in SUVs unnecessarily, it could be done."

Perhaps if we got rid of ignorant socialists like yourself by shipping you over to North Korea and getting the government OUT of the free market we would have capitalism and the market making decisions and improvements in technology. Then we could have our gas prices back at a much more reasonable level.

[07055]

" In fact you might want to try imagining how far you'd have gotten trying to explain your fundamental right to own a pigmobile to anybody during WW-II..."

Gas was rationed during WWII to save rubber---not because there was any shortage of gasoline in the US.

If we have another war like WWII, and need to save rubber again, I might agree to a restriction on my freedom to own the vehicle that fits my needs. Until then, the Environmentalist Nazis can all take a flying leap.

Oh, and remember that while the "peons" were restricted from driving during WWII, the politicians got all the gasoline they wanted. Sort of like today's California crowd that is driven around in Limos but is also hell bent on taking away SUVs from the peons.

[HighWheeler]

Instead, car manufacturers should notify all the car dealers in California that they will be out of business on the day the state's new fuel efficiency standards go into effect.

I thought that the cigarette companies should have done the same thing when Florida was the first to blame cigarettes for excess state expense and sued the mfgrs. Can you imagine what screaming would go on if the cigarette mfgrs simply stopped selling in Florida?

[HighWheeler]

The guy who uses a sedan or compact car to commute or drive around in by himself, which, near as I can tell, is 90% of sedan owners, is a pig. A motorcycle would provide all his transportation needs and consume much less gasoline and road space.

I see your motorcycle, and raise you a bicycle.

[medved]

" Dependance on foreign oil compromises America's foreign policy and allows things like 9/11 to happen."

That has got to be the stupidest comment ever posted on FR, without question. We have a dependency on foreign oil by and large because tree huggers like yourself have limited expansion of our refining system and drilling in "enviromentally sensitve" areas even though there has never been a spill in one of these ares of any consequence due to drilling.

If it were within my power, I'd outlaw the democrat party in the blink of an eye and immediately set a national policy to develop every energy source which could be developed in America or any of its territories, but I would also put the heaviest possible tax on the improper use of SUVs and vans.

The last time we had gasoline rationing here in 74, I was picking up hitchhikers who could no longer get gas for their Mercedes, BMW, or Caddy. Next time, that ain't happening; you and your fellow SUV owners will be WALKING.

[07055]

The last time we had gasoline rationing here in 74, I was picking up hitchhikers who could no longer get gas for their Mercedes, BMW, or Caddy. Next time, that ain't happening; you and your fellow SUV owners will be WALKING.

I also remember that the "politically connected" had no problem getting as much gasoline as they wanted. There are always two sets of rules.

[babble-on]

its a free-rider problem in economics. If some people work hard to curb energy consumption to reduce the Arabs' grip on our society, there will be others who will take any modest excuse to use more energy. You would think that the SUV driving gas wasting idiots would maybe see the fact that we are in a war over this issue as a sign that something is wrong, but apparently not.

[Nuke'm Glowing]

As a Floridian, but not a smoker, I wish that they had. If any of these manufacturers had the hutspa to take this kind of action, the litigation would die off quickly.

[Nuke'm Glowing]

" If it were within my power, I'd outlaw the democrat party in the blink of an eye and immediately set a national policy to develop every energy source which could be developed in America or any of its territories, but I would also put the heaviest possible tax on the improper use of SUVs and vans. "

And just what Nazi committe are you proposing to determine the proper "use" of anything? Will you have your stormtroopers kick my door in for going up to the 7-11 3 blocks away in my SUV to get a 6 pack? Or shall we just start executing people for exercising freedom. It's not in the government's nor your power (yet) to determine how I live and run my life. And I will give my life up before I allow anyone or any government to do so. I fought for our freedoms, not for some flakey tree hugger to take my freedoms away.

" The last time we had gasoline rationing here in 74, I was picking up hitchhikers who could no longer get gas for their Mercedes, BMW, or Caddy. Next time, that ain't happening; you and your fellow SUV owners will be WALKING."

Anyone who is hitchiking because of that is a moron. Believe it or not their were fuel gauges then and they are still standard equipment on all cars and yes those evil SUVs. I won't be walking. I'll grit my teeth, yell at my congressman, and pay the price for gas. You're on crack if you think the government would ever allow 74 to happen again. Now run along junior, you've been shredded on this board and DU needs more intellectuals like yourself.

[Paradox]

Full article HERE.

The car behind Williams, driven by Blous Bertrand, 29, also swerved and may have made contact with a fourth car, an SUV coming up in the left lane, Herrell said. His car then collided with Williams' car, Herrell said. Bertrand's three passengers Jenna Dodin, 30, Uyzes Joseph, 28, and Mahurin Aloy, 33, were all hospitalized.

The SUV, driven by Germeus Emmanuel, 44, went off the shoulder, came back on the pavement and rolled several times, Herrell said. Emmanuel's wife, Gertrude, 38, died as did another passenger Francois Gregorie, 39, all of Orlando. Germus Emmanuel remained hospitalized late Sunday.

[Fabozz]

"I see your motorcycle, and raise you a bicycle."

No no, that won't do. Bicycles are slow, only have a short range, aren't safe or even particularly usable in inclement weather and can't carry any cargo. No, the bottom line is that anyone who drives something smaller than I do is on the lunatic fringe, and anyone who drives something bigger than I do is raping the planet, picking my pocket and sending my kids off to die in the desert. I am the only person who drives a vehicle appropriate to his needs, and as such I should make that decision for the rest of you as well.

[TJFLSTRAT]

I drive every day at work, I see a huge number of women driving SUV's that don't have the first clue about how to drive one, many wrecks, and rollovers. On a related note, I also see alot of Housewives in expensive SUV's "dumping" their kids off at daycare everyday.

[wattsmag2]

Gray D. Antionutte says, "Let them drive Kia's."

[07055]

I nominate this for FReeper comment of the day.

[Inkie]

It is not the government's effin' business why a person has an SUV or what he uses it for, as long as it is not used for a criminal act. People who buy these vehicles pay through the nose already for new roads and everything else the government claims to be taxing us for, because they use more gas, each gallon of which contains at least 50 cents in taxes (that is about one-third of the price). I don't own an SUV -- just a 10-year old Honda and a 10-year old Nissan. Can't afford a new car right now. But I do not begrudge a fellow citizen whatever car he or she can afford to buy. Our one-party state of California just wants to control every aspect of our lives. After all, we all agree that government knows best, right? Not.

[Lonely NY Conservative]

I have four children who the government insists must ride in car seats/boosters. Only an SUV/Van offers a third row of seats - do you propose that my family not be allowed to travel together? Or should I have been limited to three children so as not to consume a disproportionate share of the earth's resources? And, yes, occasionally you will see me or my wife solo in our Acura MDX, as we don't always have all the kids with us - I will surely hurry out and purchase another car for these occasions so as not to offend your delicate sensibilities.

[Freedom'sWorthIt]

Will it include 18 wheelers?

[Equality 7-2521]

Dependance on foreign oil compromises America's foreign policy and allows things like 9/11 to happen.

Geez, all this time I thought it was drug user's. </sarcasm>

[Eva]

Did it ever occur to you that some people drive big cars because they don't fit into small cars? Little people drive little cars.

My husband is 6'6" and looks through the tinted portion of the windshield on an Explorer size vehicle, with his knees hitting the dash board.

Most sedans are made to fit short people. My husband had to drive his mother from Philadelphia to Stowe, VT in her Mercedes and it took him two hours in a jacuzzi to get the cramps out of his legs afterward.

[07055]

Or should I have been limited to three children so as not to consume a disproportionate share of the earth's resources

I assume you are not an illegal alien. If you aren't, then I'm sure California believes you should be so limited. If you are, there are no limits on how many kids you have or bring across the border. All are welcome and all will be supported by CA taxpayers.